


Shypox

by Daovihi



Category: Dragon Quest Series, Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Act 2, Almost Kiss, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, American Sign Language, Background Relationships, Blushing, Boys Being Boys, Camping, Canon-Typical Sexual References, Canonical Child Abuse, Circus tricks, Crushes, Cuddling & Snuggling, Drowning, F/F, Fooling Around, Friends to Lovers, Games, Gay Panic, Help, Hugs, Juggling, Laughter, M/M, Making Up, Misunderstandings, Multi, Near Death Experiences, Nonverbal Communication, Oblivious, Other, Panic Attack, Past Child Abuse, Pining, Racing, Sexual References, Sharing A Tent, Sharing a Bed, Shopping, Shypox, Spoilers, Swimming, Temporary Hearing Loss, Travelling together, almost confession, almost kisses, and a dumbass, and by that i mean theyre laughing over the littlest things, autistic!hendrik, cuteness, freaking out, genderfluid!sylv, getting the wrong idea, god theres so many tags, hendriks kinda like an exasperated dad, how tf do i write grandads?, i hate writing rabs speech pattern, idk how circus tricks work and i cant tell if it shows, ill add more tags as I go, intersex!protag, lesbian defending her gf, mental illness hcs, no one cares about nudity, past canonical child abuse, plate spinning, srsly why isnt that a thing in these fics?, sylv swims naked cuz of course he does, tagging that just to be safe, the luminary is a pansexual disaster, trans!hendrik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2019-10-16 07:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17545130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daovihi/pseuds/Daovihi
Summary: Why does Eleven keep getting Shypox around Erik? It's not because he has a crush on his best friend... does he?





	1. Eleven Suddenly Realizes He Has The Gays TM

**Author's Note:**

> "im so surprised theres no mention of shypox in this fandom. i mean, cmon! you can get super gay moments around erik if youre lucky."
> 
> \- me, shortly before coming up w this fic

For as long as Eleven can remember, he's been cursed. Whether he inherited it from his birth parents, or was cursed as an infant, he does not know. Grandpa Chalky didn't know either, and neither did his mum. All he knows is that his curse affects him at the worst of times, whether he's in the heat of battle, or he's just sitting down to have some lunch. It leaves him with such intense feelings of embarassment that he's forced to cower and wait for it to pass.

That curse is called Shypox. And right now, it was being a pain in the everywhere. All Eleven wanted was to talk to Erik, but for some strange reason, his gaze lingered on Erik's exposed chest, and then his heart started pounding fit to burst! And if that wasn't bad enough, now everyone's starting to stare at him! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Uh, El, you ok?" Erik asks him. Oh no, now he's gotten Erik worried! This must be the worst day of Eleven's life!

"Is it the Shypox again?" Serena approaches, holding her harp. She looks Eleven up and down, noting how tense his muscles have become. "I could play a calming tune, if you'd like. It might help you relax." 

Eleven risks a glance upwards. He takes one glance at Erik's chest, then immediately hides behind his hands again.

"Darling, what he needs is to smile!" And now Sylvando takes the stage, with his bag of balls in one hand and his clarinet in the other! "Look at him! He's so stressed he looks like he'll snap if we blow on him too hard! And as we all know, the cure for too much stress is laughter!"

"Pretty sure it's just Shypox again." Erik frowns as he rests his hand on his hip.

Veronica huffs from where she's sitting. "Either way, you shouldn't crowd around him. It'll just make it worse!"

"You're right. Come on, everyone, let's take a few steps back." Serena takes the initiative to back away until she and Eleven are at a comfortable distance.

Sylvando also takes a few steps backwards. However, Erik lingers next to Eleven. He finds himself rubbing Eleven's back, easing the taut muscles.

"Hey, it's ok. Just ride it out." Erik whispers like he would to a spooked horse. Slowly, Eleven's body relaxes, and he straightens his back, although he keeps his face covered. "There you go. You wanna sit down?"

Eleven nods and sits on the ground. Erik sits next to him, with their knees touching. Somehow, that makes Eleven smile.

"Soooo," Sylvando lowers the volume of his voice, but still keeps it quite enthusiastic. "How about I put on a little show for you? I promise it'll make you feel better."

"Or I could play you a nice, calm song." Serena adds with a smile. "Whatever you want."

Eleven peeks through his fingers and looks to Serena, then to Sylvando. "Sylvando first." Sylvando's performance seems like it'll be better for his churning gut right now. Besides, it's getting late. Listening to Serena's song, THEN watching Sylvando perform will leave him too excited to sleep. With the other way around, at least Serena can play a lullabye or something.

"Ho ho!" Sylvando beams at Eleven. "Perfect! I've been practising a new routine, and I've been wanting to show it off! Could one of you go fetch the others while I prepare?"

Veronica sighs dramatically. "I'll go." She gets off her improvised seat, a small crate, and dusts off her dress. Then, she grabs her whip. "Don't start without me!"

\-----

Veronica arrives just as Sylvando finishes setting up. Sylvando has a "stage" drawn out using ropes to make a rectangle, and he has several props set in one corner. As for Veronica and company, Jade has a bundle of sticks in both arms, Rab has a bag full of raw materials and is grumbling about his aching joints, and Hendrik has a basketful of food.

"Ah! Perfect timing, darlings! The show's just about to start!" Sylvando clasps his hands together. "Have a seat in front of the stage, and laugh off your weary bones as I sing, dance, and perform tricks that will leave your jaws dropping to your laps!"

Jade smiles. "What a pleasant surprise." She remarks as she puts the firewood next to the fire.

"Och, been too long since ave watched… What are ya doin'?"

"I'm glad you asked! I shall perform some brand-new comedy routines that will have you rolling around and laughing!"

"Hm. Any particular reason why you're performing?" Hendrik puts the food away with the rest of their shared provisions.

"None, silly! I just need to test my routine out in front of an audience!" Sylvando grins, booping Hendrik on the nose. "Now, all of you, have a seat! I'm just dying to get started!"

Everyone sits down in front of Sylvando's stage. Eleven and Erik are still sitting together, with Erik massaging Eleven's knee and Eleven holding Erik in a loose side hug. Eleven is careful not to look at Erik, fixing his gaze on Sylvando instead. As Sylvando grabs a few props, Erik rests his head on Eleven's shoulder and smiles.

Soon after, the show begins. Sylvando starts off with a simple routine involving a rose, which he seemingly plucks out of thin air and hands to Hendrik. Then, he builds up to more complex routines that integrate all of his props. And of course, once he gets to his comedy routines, the entire audience doubles over in laughter.

Eleven has to force himself to breathe past the laughter in order to get any air into his lungs. His chest heaves with the effort of regaining his composure, and his insides now hurt in a completely different way. But as he recovers, he glances over to Erik, and his heart seems to stop.

Erik is laughing so much he's wheezing and snorting, and he's broken away from Eleven in favor of slapping the ground. His abs are tightening so much that he feels a six-pack coming on, and his eyes water from how tightly they're shut. But above all, his laugh is the cutest laugh Eleven has ever heard. It's a little high-pitched, with his usual arrogance replaced with pure joy. Eleven doesn't even realize he's staring until Erik recovers and sits back up with a huge grin on his face.

"Man, that…" Erik bursts into laughter once again. "Ha ha haaaa! That-! Oh ho ho hoooo!!!! When he-" Erik bends over and silently cackles.

Eleven just stares at him, absolutely dumbstruck. An entire flood of feelings crashes into his heart, and for once, it's not induced by Shypox. No, these feelings, which Eleven didn't realize were familiar until they slapped him in the face, were induced by Erik's happiness. They send Eleven's heart into a flutter and suddenly leave him feeling breathless all over again.

When Erik finally recovers, he pats Eleven on the back, sending electricity throughout his body. "Man, I needed that!" Then, he side-hugs Eleven with a smile. "Feel any better?"

"Yep." Eleven nods, feeling his face heat up. What's with him and Erik today? Usually, all that happens is that he stares at Erik's face or chest for a little too long and gets embarassed, but that only happens five times a day. Today, Shypox kicked in fourteen separate times, all because of Erik. And it wasn't even his face or chest! (Although they did not help.) No, his mere prescence seems to be doing… something. Eleven can't place what it is.

Could it be… that Eleven's becoming allergic to Erik? That would explain the strange, fluttering feeling Eleven always gets around him. But why would that affect his Shypox? And last time he checked, flushing isn't a symptom of allergies. Unless he's just getting a rash?

"Hey, 'Leven, you still there?" Erik waves a hand in front of Eleven's face. Eleven blinks rapidly as he returns to reality. Sylvando's show is coming to a close, with him announcing that he shall perform one last trick.

"Uh, yeah." Eleven stammers.

Erik's lips quirk into that arrogant smirk that always leaves Eleven feeling weak at the knees. "Good. Don't want you blanking out at the end of the show." Then, he takes Eleven's hand and gently squeezes it.

Eleven's thought process suddenly grinds to a halt. Erik… holding his hand? This is almost too much to bear! If Erik does anything more, Eleven's gonna faint!

As if reading Eleven's mind, Erik chuckles adorably. "You look so cute like that."

Ohhhhhh no. Eleven blushes so hard that every inch of his skin feels like it's burning! And Erik won't. Stop. Smiling. At. Him. It's enough to make Eleven feel light-headed and weak.

Erik turns his attention back to Sylvando's last trick, but all Eleven can focus on is Erik's beautiful lips. They look… so soft… Eleven just wants to touch them and see just how soft they are. As flashing lights dance across Erik's face, Eleven leans in imperceptively closer and reaches for Erik's cheek, then hesitates. Erik wouldn't want Eleven just touching him… would he?

Yes he wouldn't, Eleven decided. Erik didn't like random strangers touching him, so why would he tolerate his best friend doing so? It doesn't add up. And so, Eleven drops his hand into his lap and tries to concentrate on Sylvando's show. Unfortunately, he seems to have missed most of it, as Sylvando already has a bouquet of roses in his hand.

"O ho ho! Look what we have here! Eleven roses!" Sylvando looks at the roses with fake curiosity. "I wonder where the twelfth is…" His gaze travels over to Hendrik. "Oh, would you look at that! The twelfth rose is with Hendrick! What a surprise!" Sylvando dramatically gasps, covering his mouth. "Well, surely these roses would want to be reunited with their sibling!"

"Sylvando-" Hendrik begins to say, but Sylvando shushes him.

"Without further ado, let us bring this family together!" Sylvando hands Hendrik the bouquet with a wink. Then, he faces the rest of the audience and puts his hand on his chest. "Awww, what a heartwarming reunion! Unfortunately, this is the end of my show, but don't worry, darlings! I shall perform again soon!"

Everyone starts clapping, except for Hendrik, who's looking at his flowers with a small smile. Erik breaks away from Eleven to clap with the others, leaving Eleven with a distinct yet vague feeling of loss. Eleven claps along anyway, not wanting to disappoint Sylvando. After all, the whole reason Sylvando put on this show was to make Eleven happy, and Eleven didn't want to make him think it wasn't good enough.

Sylvando bows to the crowd and waits for it to stop clapping. Then, he starts putting his props away and clearing the stage. Once it's empty, Sylvando looks at Serena and smiles. "Yoo hoo! I think someone wanted to play a little song for us!" He waves Serena over.

Serena climbs out of her best friend's, Jade's, lap and steps into the middle of the stage. Sylvando quietly leaves to allow Serena to play. Serena experimentally strums her strings, tunes them, then strums them again before clearing her throat. "This song is a lullaby that was used to send me and Veronica to sleep when we were little. It's called 'Yggdrasil Loves You.'" Then, she begins to play.

A calming, sleepy lullaby forms from her harp as her fingers pluck and play. Erik takes Eleven's hand again, making Eleven short-circuit and his heart beat faster. Now Eleven can't focus on anything else, not even the music he's straining himself to pay attention to. After what seems like an eternity, Eleven gives up and just relishes in the feeling of his hand in Erik's. But all too soon, the song ends, and Serena accepts her audience's praise with a smile and a curtsy.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tuckered out." Erik says with a groan as he stretches his back. "Why don't we turn in for the night?"

"Good idea." Jade says, getting up and dusting herself off. "Serena's lullaby almost put me to sleep."

"Unlike Rab over there." Eleven points to Rab, who's laying on his back and softly snoring.

Serena giggles. "Looks like the lullaby worked a bit too well."

"Unfortunately." Jade sighs. "I'll have to carry him back to my tent."

"I shall help you, Princess." Hendrik stands up.

"First of all, I haven't been a princess in a long time. Second of all, I can carry him on my own."

"But, Princ- Jade, it shall be no issue for me to assist you."

Erik rolls his eyes. "If she doesn't want help, she doesn't want help."

Hendrik opens his mouth, then shuts it. "Very well, then."

Eleven looks around and frowns. "Hey, guys, have you seen Veronica?"

Erik's eyebrows furrow as he looks to where he last saw Veronica. "Where is she?"

Sylvando glances around. "That's strange, she was here during my show."

"Eh. Maybe she's just using the bathroom." Jade goes over to Rab and lifts him into a sitting position. She looks behind him and gasps. "I found Veronica!"

Veronica is laying on the ground where Rab once. She has her mouth hanging open, with drool leaking out, and heavy pink marks on her face.

"It seems the lullaby worked far too well." Serena laughs, walking over to Veronica and picking her up.

"It sure did, honey." Sylvando sleepily mumbles. He yawns. "Hen, I wanna go to bed."

"Yes, dear." Hendrik half-whispers to Sylvando. "Sylvando and I shall retire for the night." He announces to the group in a louder voice.

Did Hendrik just call Sylvando 'dear?' Wow, they must be spending lots of time together if they're picking up each other's speech patterns, Eleven thought. He hopes they're becoming best friends. Hendrik needs a bestie in his life, after all. And it seems Sylvando's perfect for that role.

"Goodnight, guys." Jade picks up Rab with a grunt and carries her over to their shared tent."

"Night, darlings." Sylvando helps Hendrick get up.

"Goodnight." Hendrik takes Sylvando by the hand and guides him to their tent.

"Sweet dreams, everyone." Serena takes Veronica to their own tent.

"Night!" Erik and Eleven say at the same time.

Now, it's just Eleven and Erik. The dying campfire provides little warmth, not that it's a problem for Eric. No, the real problem is that Eleven's starting to shiver and rub his arms. Naturally, Erik takes Eleven into his arms to share their body heat. Problem solved.

"Too cold?" Erik asks, even though he knows the answer.

"Not anymore." Eleven's face heats up anew. Did Erik cast a spell on him, or is he naturally that warm?

"Good." Erik scoots a little closer. "I've actually been wanting to talk to you about something."

Eleven tries to talk to the person hugging him…

But it suddenly hits him that his behavior towards Erik today was super weird! Erik must think he's a creep or something! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Holy Goddess, that was loud!" Erik flinches away. "What's with that music, anyway?"

"Sorry…" Eleven mumbles into Erik's shoulder. Erik has to strain himself to hear Eleven past the muffled effect. "I can't help it. It just does that."

Erik pats Eleven's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It just surprised me, is all."

"Thanks." Eleven looks up at Erik's face. Erik has that arrogant smile again, the one that almost always triggers Eleven's Shypox. Eleven hides his face in Erik's shoulder again as his stomach starts doing flips.

"So, uh, can you have a conversation right now?" Erik cautiously asks, rubbing Eleven's back.

"I… I think so." Eleven keeps his eyes fixed on the Goddess statue across from him.

"Ok, good. So, uh, I've noticed that your Shypox is being set off a LOT lately. Everything ok?"

"Yep." Eleven lies. He can't just admit Erik himself is bothering him, that'll hurt Erik's feelings!

"You know you can talk to me about anything, right? I'll be there for you til the end of the line."

"Yep."

Erik sighs. "Alright, I won't bother you over it. But if you wanna talk, I'm here for you." He pats Eleven's back.

"Thanks." Eleven turns his head so that he can rest on Erik's shoulder without smothering himself.

"Y'know, this reminds me of that time after Gondolia." Erik mutters, deciding to change the subject.

"When me and Serena patched you up?"

"No, after that."

"When you asked me to spend the night with you?"

"Yeah." Erik nods. "Only, I was the one that was being held."

Eleven chuckles. "You were so adorable when you wanted me to cuddle with you."

"I kinda just… needed someone to hold me, after the beating I got from Jasper. Don't tell anyone I said that. I've got a reputation to uphold."

"Don't worry, with my memory, I'll probably have forgotten it by tomorrow."

Erik laughs and thumps Eleven on the back. "Between your memory and your Shypox, it's a wonder you get anything done."

"Good thing I've got you to help me." Eleven lifts his head up and smiles.

Erik's cheeks and ears turn red. He looks away and scratches the back of his head. "And I've got you… to…" Erik mumbles the last bit.

"What was that?"

"I said I've got you to stab things!" Erik answers a little too loud and a little too fast 

"That didn't sound anything like-"

"Whoa, would you look at that! I'm super sleepy!" Erik yawns and stretches. "We should probably turn in for the night."

Eleven frowns. "Why-"

Erik slides his arm under Eleven's knees and lifts him up like a shocked sack of flour. "Uh-oh, look's like you're getting kidnapped!"

"H-hey!" Eleven gasped. "What're you doing?!"

"Taking you to my evil lair!" Erik maniacally laughs as he carries Eleven to their shared tent.

"Eriiiiik!" Eleven giggles as he half-heartedly struggles. "Put me down!"

"Sorry, you're in my clutches now!" Erik brings Eleven into the tent and lays him down on their shared 'bed,' an assortment of blankets and two pillows.

"Stoooop!" Eleven pushes at Erik's shoulders.

"Too late! You're already in my Evil Fortress of Doom, where I capture young damsels and keep them for eternity!"

"I'm not a damsel!"

"Your situation says otherwise!" Erik falls on top of Eleven laughing.

Eleven hugs Erik and laughs. "But seriously, we're gonna wake up the others at this rate."

"Grr, curse our biological need for sleep." Erik rolls off of Eleven and lays on his back. "If we were alone, we could do whatever we wanted."

"Like?"

"Like, I don't know," Erik frowns. "Something… we can do together, y'know?"

Eleven rolls onto his side to face Erik. "So you just wanna spend time together?"

"I always do." Erik mirrors Eleven's position so that they're face to face. Now, they're so close together that their noses are almost, but not quite touching.

Eleven's breath catches in his throat. Erik's eyes look so beautiful, even in the dim light. They seem to shine with a hypnotizing light that draws Eleven further into their gaze. Erik's pink lips move, but no sound comes out of his mouth. Then, Erik shuts it and hesitantly lays his hand on Eleven's upper arm.

"Eleven?" Erik whispers so quietly it was as though he was afraid he would break porcelain with his voice.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But all of a sudden, his face turns bright red! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"WILL YOU TWO KEEP IT DOWN?!?! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!!!" Hendrik screams from inside his tent with the same tone he used whenever he spat at the 'Darkspawn' back in the day.

"Sorry!" Eleven squeaks out from behind his hands. "I can't help it, it's the Shypox!"

"Ugh, just… try to keep that tune quiet. I don't want you keeping my Sylvando up."

A dramatic gasp rings through the air. "You said I'm yours!"

Erik sighs as Sylvando and Hendrik start talking to one another. He turns to his other side so that he's facing away from Eleven. "We should probably go to bed soon."

"Yeah." Eleven nods, voice almost normal. "We should."

"Could you get the blanket?"

"Sure." Eleven grabs the corner of the blanket and wraps it around them both. "Comfy?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Goodnight." Eleven wishes Erik.

"Goodnight."

Eleven watches as Erik's breathing gradually slows until Eleven's certain Erik fell asleep. Eleven would go to sleep too, only he has so much nervous energy that he just can't keep his eyes closed. With a sigh, he props himself up on one elbow and takes in Erik's appearance while he thinks about his behavior lately.

For some reason, he's always wanted to know what it was like to kiss Erik. Would his kisses be chaste and innocent? Wild and rough? A combination of those traits? Whatever it is, the desire to pull Erik close and feel his lips against Eleven's skin has only been growing exponentially lately.

And the feelings he gets around Erik! They've been around for about as long as he's known him. At first, Eleven dismissed them as simply feelings of newfound camaraderie and trust. After all, he and Erik went through multiple near-death experiences together in a very short timespan, leading to them growing much closer than they normally would have. But Eleven's starting to suspect that maybe, just maybe… those feelings are because of something else.

Oh, who is he kidding? Eleven doesn't have a crush on Erik, that'd be more ridiculous than all the times Eleven thought monsters were cute! Eleven scoffs and runs his hand through his hair. There's no way he could have fallen for Erik!

As soon as Eleven finished that thought, Erik rolls over and reaches underneath Eleven. When he pats the ground, Erik whimpers so heartbreakingly that Eleven takes his hand and holds it.

"Hey, I'm here." Eleven whispers, squeezing Erik's hand.

Erik stops whimpering immediately. He settles down and loses the frown on his face. Eleven lays back down and lets go of Erik's hand. Erik immediately uses his freed hand to hug Eleven tight. Now Erik's using Eleven's shoulder as a pillow, and he sighs so happily that Eleven can't help but smile at him. Eleven reaches up and strokes Erik's hair while idly daydreaming about a future where they wake up in each other's arms every single day, and start off their mornings with a kiss, then prepare breakfast together and sit in each other's laps as they feed their husband perfectly-cooked eggs and hash browns.

Eleven's eyes grow until they're practically bulging out of his eye sockets. Erik as his husband? Eleven as Erik's husband? As crazy as it sounds, it feels like paradise to Eleven. The more he thinks about it, the more he craves a domestic life with Erik, craves soft, casual kisses packed with love and affection. His heart thuds as he finally comes to realize the implications of such thoughts: he is in love with Erik.

"Oh no." Eleven mutters.


	2. I Swear I Didn't Mean To Put Angst In This One By Fall Out Boy

Eleven stares blankly at the tent canvas as the first rays of sun start to peek in. Try as he might, he just couldn't get any sleep, not with Erik clinging to him like a Khalomari Kid. With his legs entangled with Eleven's and arms holding Eleven in a death grip, it's a perfect recipe for gay disaster. And if that wasn't bad enough, Erik keeps sleeptalking and making cute lil noises, causing Eleven's little pansexual heart to almost give out. But miraculously, he survived long enough to see the sunrise… or at least its light.

Eleven sighs and hugs Erik a little tighter. With their position, and Eleven's budding attraction, he has no choice but to hug Erik and make things even snugglier for them both. So far, that has resulted in Erik practically laying on top of him and keeping him pinned to the bed. Eleven shuffles underneath him to try and get more blood flowing to his arm, but then Erik groans, and Eleven forgot what he was doing.

"Mm." Erik's eyes slowly blink open as he lifts his head up. He rubs his eye as he looks at Eleven. His tunic's laces have come undone during the night, leaving his shoulder and a large portion of his chest exposed. Then, he notices that Eleven's awake, and he smiles. "Hey."

Eleven tries to talk to the person on top of him…

But he's been staring at Erik's skin for too long, and now he can't look anywhere else! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!"

Erik scoffs. "Good morning to you, too." He flicks Eleven's forearm and pushes himself onto his own arms. "Ready to face the day?"

"I guess." Eleven croaks hoarsely.

"Whoa, you sound like you swallowed a frog." Erik's brows furrow together. "Do you need some water?"

"Sure." Eleven drops his hands by the sides of his head.

Erik stretches his arm to reach Eleven's waterskin. Then, he uncorks it and presses the lip to Eleven's mouth. Eleven opens his mouth and lets Erik pour his water in. Only then does Eleven realize how thirsty he is.

"Tell me when." Erik says.

Eleven drinks greedily as his gaze drifts back to Erik's body against his will. Erik's tunic has slipped further down his arm, revealing one half of his scarred chest, and the other sleeve is dangerously close to slipping off too. Eleven convulses, and starts violently coughing.

"Eleven?!" Erik recorks the waterskin and puts it aside, then cups Eleven's cheek. "Are you ok?! Should I get someone?!"

Eleven holds up a finger as he hacks up the water. Erik strokes Eleven's impossibly-silky hair as he waits for the coughing to die down, and wonders how Eleven keeps it so smooth and straight. But Eleven's eyes open, and Erik forgets all about that.

"You ok now?" Erik softly asks.

Eleven takes a deep breath. "Yeah."

Erik smiles. "You scared me there." Erik leans down and cradles Eleven's face in his hands.

Eleven's breath catches in his throat, but this time, there's no liquid to choke him. Erik's tunic has slipped off his other shoulder and so far down his arm that his neckline is hanging just above his abdomen. All that's stopping the tunic from sliding down his waist and hips is that suddenly annoying red sash he always wears.

"For a moment," Erik continues, oblivious to Eleven's current state. "I thought I was killing you. Heh, I feel so stupid now."

"You…" Eleven swallows. "You just wanted to help."

"Eleven…" Erik's thumb glides to Eleven's bottom lip and gently plays with it. "If anything happened to you because of me, I'd never be able to live with myself."

Eleven's throat turns dry as he fumbles for a response, but none come to mind. The only natural things his mind says to do is to close his eyes and lift his head a few inches. Erik brings his thumb away from Eleven's mouth and shuts his eyes.

"Good mornin', laddies!" Rab rips open the door to the tent.

Erik yelps. He's sitting up in an instant with a knife in his hand and looking towards Rab with a panicked expression.

"I was gettin' worried about ye two, so I thought I'd… come… get… you…" Rab trails off. He assesses the situation before speaking again. "I see. Sorry to bother ye two." He quietly closes the tent flap and, judging by the sound of footsteps, walks away.

Erik lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding and looks down at Eleven. He quickly puts his knife away and pants. Eleven is frozen to the spot, with a look of pure terror.

"Eleven?"

Eleven's mind is racing as he slowly realizes what exactly Rab saw. Eleven's still laying on his back, and Erik's straddling him with his shirt halfway off, and ELEVEN'S GOT HIS HANDS ON ERIK'S WAIST!!!! WHEN DID HE PUT THEM THERE?!?!?!?!?! HOW DID ERIK'S LACES GET SO UNDONE DURING THE NIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! AND NOW ERIK'S REALIZING IT TOO AND SCRAMBLING OFF ELEVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Rab, it's not what you think!" Erik screams as he fixes his tunic.

NO NO NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING THIS IS THE MOST EMBARASSING THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED AND WITH HIS OWN BEST FRIEND AND CRUSH NOW ERIK WILL NEVER LOVE HIM!!!!!!

Erik clutches his ears as he's knocked down. He blinks away the stars in his vision as the shockwaves pass. Once he can see again, he silently gasps. Eleven's curled into a ball, his entire body shaking with silent sobs as his nails dig into the skin on his face, but it's not enough to hide the tears running down the sides of his face.

WHY DO THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING TO HIM WHY DOES HE HAVE TO SUFFER WHY CANT HE JUST BE NORMAL WHY CANT HE JUST HAVE NICE THINGS WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

Erik crawls over to Eleven's side and rapidly taps his side. He tries to speak, but he can't hear his own words. He keeps tapping Eleven in the hopes of… something. He has no idea what he'll do if Eleven actually responds.

ERIK PROBABLY HATES HIM NOW RAB PROBABLY HATES HIM TOO EVERYONE HATES HIM FOR BEING SUCH A BURDEN NO ONE LIKES HIM HE HATES FEELING LIKE THIS HE HATES IT SO MUCH

Erik acts on impulse and gathers Eleven in his arms, then hugs him and rocks him back and forth in what he hopes is a comforting gesture. He rubs circles into Eleven's back and bounces his own leg. Light pours in, and Erik looks over. Someone opened the tent flap, Serena this time, and she and the others are looking in with concerned expressions. Serena's lips move, but no sound comes out. All Erik can hear is the ringing in his ears.

NOW EVERYONES LOOKING AT HIM THEY MUST BE HERE TO HURT HIM AND LAUGH AT HIM AND GAWK AT HIM AND POINT AT HIM AND MOCK HIM AND HATE HIM

Veronica steps forward and hugs Eleven for a few seconds. Then, she points outside. Erik nods and carries Eleven out of the tent. He sets Eleven in front of the campfire, where someone was preparing a breakfast, and lets Rab crouch down in front of Eleven. Rab has a pained look on his face as he hugs Eleven. He says something, but it doesn't seem to have much effect.

OH NO NOW RAB'S… hugging him? And… didn't Veronica hug him too?

Hendrik procures a handkerchief and starts cleaning Eleven's snotty, tear-streaked face, or at least the parts he could reach with Eleven's hands partially covering it. Once he's done, Hendrik puts his handkerchief back and allows Serena to try and comfort Eleven. Rab lets go of Eleven and gives Serena some space as she places her cool hands on the sides of Eleven's overheated face. Eleven's shaking lighten slightly as he peeks through his fingers. Serena smiles and says something to him, then coaxes his hands away from his face. Eleven sniffles and lets Serena hold one of his hands. Then, Jade digs something out of the pot, puts it in a plate, and hands it to Eleven. Her muffled voice leaves no clues as to what she says, but Erik guesses it has something to do with the scrambled eggs on the plate, as Eleven takes the plate. Jade hands him a fork, and Eleven takes it and begins to eat while keeping his gaze focused on his plate. Finally, Sylvando crouches down in front of Eleven and places his hand on Eleven's shoulder. Eleven looks up at Sylvando, who has an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face as he says what Erik works out as a question. Eleven shakes his head, and Sylvando pats him before saying something else. Eleven nods, then Sylvando says something that makes Eleven smile.

Heh. So Sylvando's trying to make him smile over breakfast. He might just choke again if Sylvando keeps making wisecracks. He idly notices that Erik's holding him, and he leans into Erik as his tears stop flowing. Erik rubs his belly as he takes another bite of his eggs.

Erik can just make out hard syllables now, and while he can't quite make out what anyone's saying, he hears - and feels - Eleven's laughter, and even with his dulled hearing, it still sounds like the sweetest song in the world. Sylvando starts juggling while Erik's attention is occupied, and Erik watches with a smile as Eleven becomes mesmerized by the bright, colorful balls. Then, he catches them all, spins around, and when he stops to face Eleven, some long, fully-inflated ballons are in his hands, which he quickly twists into a top hat.

"Here you go!" Sylvando winks as he places the hat atop his - Eleven's - head. "Balloon top hats make everything better!"

"Can-" Eleven clears his throat. "Can I use your mirror?"

"But of course, darling! Allow me to go get it!" Sylvando runs into his tent and returns with his hand mirror and hands it to Eleven.

Eleven takes a look in the mirror. His face is completely red, with his eyes bloodshot, puffy, and moist. Small trickles of snot trail out his nose and end just above his lip. Somehow, the hat only manages to make him look even more ghastly. Eleven guesses it's because it heavily contrasts with his frazzled state. Eleven wipes his face on his sleeve, which only marginally improves his appearance.

"Thank you." Eleven finally says. "All of you."

"How do you feel?" Jade asks him.

"Better." Eleven turns to Erik. "Are you ok?"

"They're actually maple!" Erik shouts louder than is appropriate for talking to someone next to him.

Eleven winces. "Deserved that." He then scoots away from Erik and brings his hands in front of his chest.

"You didn't deserve-" Serena gets cut off when Eleven shushes her.

Eleven points to Erik with his right hand, then with the same hand, he forms an o-shape with his fingers, then a peace sign, while keeping his brows furrowed.

Erik nods. He makes thumbs up with both hands, brings them together so that the back of his hands are facing away from each other, then brings one thumb towards himself while using the index on the other to point to Eleven.

Eleven simply gives Erik a thumbs up.

Erik smiles. He turns to Veronica, brings an open hand above the other with the palms facing each other and scrapes the meat of the top hand against the bottom twice. Then, he brings his right hand down and forms a fist with his left, except for the index finger, which he curves into a hook shape. He brings his left hand towards himself.

Veronica goes over to her tent and brings back a sheet of paper and a stick of charcoal. Erik takes both and writes on a nearby stool, then hands the paper to Eleven. It reads, "can yu travl to-day?"

Eleven frowns, then shrugs.

Rab takes the paper and brings his face to it. "What'd 'e say? I'm afreid my eyes aren't what they used ta be."

"He's asking if I can travel right now." Eleven answers.

"Can Erik?" Hendrik chimes in.

Eleven repeats the question to Erik using sign language. Erik focuses on his hearing for a moment, then he shakes his head.

"Nope." Eleven pops the 'p'.

"Hm. It seems we might have to stay another night." Jade frowns.

"Oh, don't worry! It'll just be another chance for our dear Eleven to forge more goodies for us!" Sylvando, ever the optimist, chimes in with a bright outlook on the situation.

"I don't know if you noticed, but he already forged the best gear he could two days ago, and we haven't found any new recipes!" Veronica, ever the angry child, chimes in with a solid observation.

"Then he could make some new outfits for fun! Who knows, they could be better than what we have now." Serena suggests.

"Or he could, y'know, be included in the conversation. Just saying." Eleven politely hints.

"Oh, sorry about that. Is there anything you'd like to do?" Serena turns to Eleven and asks.

Eleven looks at Erik, then back to Serena. "I'd like to spend more time with Erik."

Jade chuckles. "Awwww."

Eleven looks at Jade with confusion evident in his eyes. "How is that cute?"

"Nevermind." Jade shakes her head.

"If I may offer my input," Hendrik begins. "I would like to spend time with Sylvando, as well."

"Well, since everyone's doing it, I wanna take Serena out. There's this beautiful place nearby, and I want her to see it with me." Jade brushes her hair out of her face.

"Ooh, it's a date then!" Serena runs up and kisses Jade on the cheek.

Eleven smiles at the two best friends. He's glad they've managed to befriend one another and gotten so close. Eleven wasn't sure if they'd get along due to the differences in their, well, everything, but they seem to be inseparable now. He would even go so far as to say they were thick as thieves… just like him and Erik.

Speaking of Erik, he's currently doodling in the dirt with his finger. Eleven sits down next to him while the other discuss their plans. (Veronica's going to practice her magic, Rab is muttering something about finding his male copies of the Ogler's Digest, something Eleven doesn't want to think about, and Hendrik brings up sparring with Sylvando, before noticing and pointing out that Sylvando forgot his pronoun indicator pin. Sylvando put on the he/him pin, then continued as if nothing happened.) Eleven nudges Erik, getting his attention.

Eleven points to the doodle, then raises his hands palm-side up, curls his fingers, and shakes his hands side to side.

Erik holds up two fingers, pressed together, then makes a fist.

Eleven examines the faces Erik drew, then adds several spikes to Erik's hair until they reach the rocks surrounding the fire pit, then starts going around them, making Erik laugh. Then, Erik adds several long lines to Eleven's hair, reaching so far that he has to stretch his arm again. Eleven laughs and grabs the paper, then writes "can you imagine if our hair was actually that long?" and hands it to Erik.

Erik writes "itd be hardr to wash r har".

"that wouldn't be the only problem we'd have"

"yeh bt thats tha big 1"

"by the way, how are your reading lessons going?"

Erik glares daggers at Eleven.

Eleven frowns. "are they that bad?"

"YES" Erik rips the paper when he writes that, then throws the charcoal to the ground, crosses his arms, and glares at the fire.

Eleven wraps an arm around Erik. Erik sighs and leans into Eleven. His gaze softens as Eleven pats his arm. Then, he grabs the paper and writes "its 2 hard"

"what are you having trouble with?"

"when peepl dont spel lik they talk"

"i can see why that'd be hard for you. i'm sure you'll get the hang of it"

Erik pouts. "bt its HARD"

"there's no shame in asking for help"

"i now bt" Erik pauses. "i fel lik im stuck"

"how so?"

Erik frowns and shrugs.

"don't worry. like i said, you'll get the hang of it"

"it fels lik i cnt mak prohgrssss anymor"

"that's what you said when you were practising writing the alphabet, and look at your handwriting now. it's gotten so much nicer since then"

"BT THA SPELING"

"you'll improve. i believe in you" Eleven gives Erik a hug as he reads Eleven's message.

"Thank you!" Erik verbally shouts with a smile on his face. He hugs back for a moment before allowing Eleven to write something else.

"how's your hearing?"

Erik shakes his open palm in a circular motion.

"do you want to eat breakfast, then play some games?"

Erik grins and nods. "wht games?"

"i don't know, i was hoping you'd help me decide"

Erik's eyes slightly squint, and his tongue sticks out just a little. He circles the word 'decide' and writes "how do yu say that?"

Eleven looks at Erik weirdly. "your hearing's shot"

Erik mouths 'oh yeah'. "jst dscrib tha sund"

Eleven thinks for a little bit. "de-, as in december, and -cide, as in side."

"OHHHHHH SO ITS WHEN YU CHOOS" Erik passionately writes.

"yes!"

"RAB!" Erik screams at the top of his lungs. "I LEARNED TO READ A NEW WORD!"

Rab stops shuffling through his endless mountain of magazines to give Erik a thumbs up. "That's great! Which word was it?"

"IT'S ABOUT NINE THIRTY!"

Rab frowns and nods, then goes back to sorting his magazines. Erik happily gets his plate out and scoops some scrambled eggs and diced potatoes onto it. Then, he eats the food with his fingers. Eleven scrapes the last of his eggs of the plate and shovels it into his mouth, then he offers the fork to Erik. Erik takes it and stabs his food in silence.

"Mm, this is good!" Erik smiles as he stabs more food. "You get enough to eat?!" He says before sticking the fork in his mouth.

Eleven tries to talk to the person next to him…

But he can't tear his gaze from Erik's lips, or the fork that they both put their lips on. Now all Eleven can think about is kissing Erik! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

Erik silently scoops some potatoes onto Eleven's plate while Eleven recovers from his Shypox. He finishes up his breakfast, then writes "com 2 r tnt when yur done" and puts the paper in Eleven's lap, then puts the fork on Eleven's plate and goes to his tent.

Eleven peeks through his fingers. He drops his hands and reads the note, then picks up the fork. He suddenly remembers where this fork's been, and he blushes so hard he gets lightheaded and faint. He shakes his head to snap himself out of it, then tightens his grip on the fork and rapidly shovels potatoes into his mouth as fast as he can.

Hendrik glances at Eleven, then does a double-take. "Eleven!" Hendrik calls out. "What are you doing? You're going to choke if you keep that up!"

"Wbebfkshsvdn!" Eleven shoves even more food in his mouth.

Hendrik facepalms. "If you choke because you wanted to spite someone, I will not perform mouth-to-mouth again!"

"Kgvanaopfhrb!" Eleven chews and swallows. "See? I didn't choke."

Hendrik sighs and shakes his head. "Why do young people act like they have something to prove?"

"Because all the old people are constantly invalidating our very existences, and we have no say in our own governments or whether or not we die, so we cope by doing dumb shit." Eleven answers sarcastically.

"You… you ok?"

Eleven laughs. "I haven't been ok since you threw me into prison."

Hendrik looks down, and his shoulders slump. Then, he takes a deep breath and crouches next to Eleven. He lays a gentle yet firm hand on Eleven's shoulder. "I'm sorry. For everything."

Eleven shrugs. "No worries. You saved everyone in my village, so it's all good."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Eleven shrugs again. "Nah. Something about you just brings out my inner nihilist." Then, he shoves the rest of his food into his mouth at the speed of light.

"Eleven!" Hendrik grabs Eleven's wrist and wrenches his fork away. "Whag has gotten into you?!"

Eleven tries to fight back, but then his throat seizes, and before he knows it, he's coughing so hard he hunches over. Hendrik drops the fork and gets behind Eleven, then wraps his arms around his belly and shoves the side of his fist into Eleven's belly button until Eleven spits out the food. Eleven coughs and splutters as his lungs heave for the second time that day.

"Goddess, are you TRYING to kill yourself?" Hendrik mutters.

Eleven clears his throat before speaking. "I was hungry!"

"You can eat your food without inhaling it!" Hendrik yells. He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Why did you eat so fast to begin with?"

"Erik."

"What does Erik have to do with your eating habits?"

"I said Shypox."

"I distinctly heard you say Erik."

"Nope! I said Shypox!"

Hendrik sighs internally, externally, and eternally. "Was it because he dared you? Or did you two eat with the same utensils again?"

Eleven tries to refute the person interrogating him…

But he realizes that Hendrik must be onto him and his crush! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"So it WAS because of the eating utensils." Hendrik infers. "Well, I don't blame you for doing stupid things. I remember when I was young and in love." Hendrik looks into the fire and smiles.

Eleven tries to refute the person suddenly not interrogating him…

But Hendrik knows! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Am I embarassing you?" Hendrik turns to Eleven. "In that case, I apologize. I will stop talking about it now."

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!"

"I believe you." Hendrik lies, more Eleven's sake than for any personal gain.. "Speaking of Erik, where did he go?"

"…In our tent." Eleven peeks through his fingers. "Where'd everyone else go?"

"They are at the lake." Hendrik answers, beginning to put out the fire. "I was planning on going, as well. Would you and Erik like to accompany me?"

"Nah. I said I'd play a game or two with him."

"I see." Hendrik takes the plates and fork and stands up. "I'll just wash these while I'm at it."

"Wait." Eleven grabs Hendrik's tunic. "Did you remember to take your T?"

Hendrik freezes. "…No. Did you?"

Eleven's eyes grow wide. "No."

"We should get on that!" Hendrik runs over to his tent.

Eleven gets up and more calmly goes into his own tent, where Erik's waiting with two travel-sized board games. When he sees Eleven, he smiles and points to them. Eleven quickly signs to Erik that he should pick one and start setting it up, then Eleven starts searching through his and Erik's shared belongings until he finds what he's looking for, a small blue jat simply labeled 'testosterone'. Eleven sets the jar down, then takes off his balloon hat and fluidly strips out of his jacket and shirt. Once they're off, Eleven opens the jar and scoops some cream out and spreads it on his upper arm. He rubs it in, then dries his hand on an old rag.

Eleven turns his head to find Erik staring at him with his jaw hanging the lowest Eleven's ever seen. Huh. That's weird. Eleven puts his shirt back on and gets seated in front of Erik. He looks down and finds that although Erik has the game pieces in his hands, he's making no move to set them up.

"You've barely picked up the game." Eleven points out verbally, then realizes Erik can't hear him. He waves a hand in front of Erik's face, which seems to snap him out of his reverie. Eleven laughs and takes the game pieces. He was planning on teasing Erik, but then their hands brush together, and before he knows it, Eleven's collapsed into a blushing puddle while Erik lets out a high-pitched squeal.

Erik's eyes squeeze shut and blushes from head to toe as he shakes his hands and grins like a love-struck child. He babbles something Eleven has no chance of comprehending and falls onto his back. Eleven pushes himself onto shaky arms as his heart beats fast enough to explode.

"We- our hands- Aaaaaah!" Erik giggles/screams. "'Leven, we- we-!" He starts hyperventilating when he sees Eleven's face.

"Erik?" Eleven taps Erik's shoulder. No response. Eleven hits Erik's shoulder, but again, no response. He leans in closer, and Erik grabs him and pulls him down for a hug.

Eleven didn't think it was possible for his heart to beat any faster, but Erik's laughter and hug are proving him wrong. Eleven doesn't even know what to do anymore, everything's too cute, too warm, too much. He lets his face fall onto the center of Erik's chest as he tries to get his heartrate under control. Unfortunately, his face has fallen into the center of Erik's chest, so it's physically impossible for his heart to slow down.

Erik's giggles die down slightly as he catches his breath. He keeps a death grip on Eleven as he catches his breath. "'Leven, our hands-!!! They-!!!"

It takes all of Eleven's will to remove his face from Erik's chest. He takes a deep breath before speaking. "They touched?" He shouts so that Erik can hear.

"Yes!!!" Erik shrieks with joy. "They tooooouuuuuuched!"

Eleven slightly tilts his head to the side. Why is Erik acting this way? If anything, Eleven should be acting like this. Erik shouldn't be reacting this much to a simple touch…

Unless he's touch-starved!

Yes, that must be it! Erik needs so much body contact every day that he clings to Eleven day and night! With that realization in mind, Eleven rolls himself and Erik onto their sides and hugs Erik. Erik tucks his chin onto the top of Eleven's head and keeps holding on as he finally recovers.

"We, hah…" Erik lets out a sigh and wipes the tears from his face. "We touched hands! That's the first time that's happened!"

"Really?"

"What? I didn't catch that!"

Eleven just scoots back and fingerspells the word.

"Oh! Yeah, we haven't! Ever! That I know of!"

Eleven chuckles and sits up. He makes sure Erik's okay now before helping him back up, then he points to the game pieces, which have been scattered all over the place.

"Oh no." Erik sighs. He picks up the pieces and puts them back in the center of the tent.

Eleven gathers the pieces on his side of the tent and sets them up in their proper positions. When he's done, he does the same for Erik's pieces, until they have a fully set-up game sitting in front of them. Then, he grins at Erik, and Erik grins right back.

"You're going down!" Erik cockily declares as he fishes a coin out of his pocket.


	3. Two Wet Boys

Erik lost by a large margin.

"Man, that's what I get for taking so many risks." Erik scratches the back of his head and cringes as he realizes just how badly he lost.

"Explains why you're no good at poker!" Eleven drops his pieces. "Wanna play again?"

"Nah. I've got a feeling you'll beat me even harder."

"You're probably right, I've been playing this game since I was a kid!" Eleven starts sorting the pieces and putting them in their respective compartments.

"You sure play like it!" Erik pats Eleven on the arm.

Eleven's face heats up anew. His hands shake as he shuts the box and locks it.

"You play this well with other games?" Erik asks, scooting closer to Eleven.

"Only card games." Eleven squeaks at the end.

"Like what?"

"…Go fish." Eleven's hair falls in his face. He moves his hand up, then drops it before it touches his hair.

Erik chuckles. "I'm alright at poker myself. It was the first card game I learned, in fact."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I had this method of stacking cards so that I would always get decent hands. I guess I better at cheating at it than actually playing."

"How do you stack the deck?"

"Uh, first, I stack the cards atop each other in a certain way, then I cut the deck in the middle and shuffle while keeping some cards unshuffled." Erik frowns. "Ugh, I don't know how to explain it. I would show you, but I lost my deck."

Eleven stays still as he listens to Erik.

"Want me to put that away?"

"Sure." Eleven hands the box to Erik, who tucks it with their miscellaneous items. "Your hearing seems to have recovered."

"Huh?" Erik pauses. "Oh!" He smirks that dangerously attractive smirk that makes Eleven want to swoon. "Guess being around you is enough to heal me, eh?"

Eleven blushes just a bit harder. All these compliments are making it so hard for him to keep his cool. If Erik keeps this up, Eleven will definitely faint.

"'Leven, you ok?"

"Yeah!" Eleven answers a little too quickly. "Why do you ask?"

"You're being quiet right now. Was it something I did?"

"I'M ALWAYS QUIET!!!"

Erik blinks.

"…Ok, maybe not always." Eleven squeakily admits. "But usually!"

Erik opens his mouth, then decides better and shuts it. Instead, he lays his hand on Eleven's shoulder. "Wanna go swimming?"

Eleven jumps so high he hits the roof of the tent and almost brings it down. His face is so red that he might as well be an apple, or one of Sylvando's balls. His gaze shoots to Erik, whose patient, serene face framed with sky blue hair heavily contrasts with Eleven's own face.

"S-s-s-s-s-swimming?!"

"Yeah." Erik says normally, clearly used to Eleven's antics by now. "Swimming. With the others."

Oh. So Erik didn't…

Eleven tries to talk to the person to his side…

But Eleven came to a conclusion that was completely wrong! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Can you go swimming today?" Erik asks.

Eleven takes a deep breath and lifts his head up. "Not sure, but I'll go."

"I'll get the towels. You get a change of clothes for both of us."

\-----

When the boys arrive, the others have already finished their chores and are now splashing around to their heart's content, except for Hendrik, who always bathes away from the others. Eleven didn't blame him for doing so.

He puts his and Erik's clothes on a tree stump while Erik puts the towels near the water's edge. Erik strips out of his gloves, tunic, and annoying sash without any regard for Eleven's poor heart, then kicks off his boots and socks and approaches the water.

Then, Erik turns to Eleven with that smirk. "You coming or not?"

Eleven tries to talk to the half-naked person in front of him…

But he feels everyone's eyes on him. They must know about his crush on Erik! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Just leave him beeeee!" Veronica groans. "If he's not gonna come, he's not gonna come!"

Erik sighs. "Feel free to join us when you're ready." He then walks into the water until he's waist-deep, then he starts swimming about.

The others go back to whatever they were doing. Rab is washing his hair, while Veronica splashes about, Sylvando swims laps across the water inhumanly fast, and Jade… Jade's acting weird.

"Gotta say, you're quite the sight for sore eyes." Jade leans towards Serena and looks her up and down.

"Oh, gosh! Uh," Serena turns bright red, and she giggles. "I surely don't look THAT nice."

"Come on, don't sell yourself short. You have one of the most beautiful bodies I have ever seen, and I used to know several bunny girls." Jade gives Serena one of those sly smiles Eleven usually only sees on Erik.

Serena just turns around and squeals.

That's weird. Why are they talking like that? Did Eleven miss something?

"Oh, stop it, you two! You're almost as bad as the boys!" Veronica crosses her tiny arms and pouts.

"Just move away!" Jade shouts at her.

"Fine! But if you two wake me up in the middle of the night, I'll conjure up the biggest fireball in the world and fling it at you two!" Veronica throws her hands up and stomps her way onto dry land, then plops onto her towel and angrily pouts.

"What's got you so upset?" Eleven asks Veronica.

"Did you SEE them?!"

"Uh… yeah?" Eleven didn't really see what would make Veronica so angry. Then again, she's always a bit angry. If Veronica ever died or parted ways with him, Eleven would sure miss it.

"They're getting together! Just like that!"

"Uh… Why's that such an issue?"

"Because literally everyone but me is getting together with someone! Even Rab's seeing someone back in Gallopolis!"

"What are you talking about? We're all together, and we all see people whenever we go somewhere."

Veronica facepalms. "Nevermind. You wouldn't understand, seeing as you're practically married to Erik." She grumbles bitterly.

Eleven blushes. Hard. "I-it's not like that!"

"Of course it's not. You haven't picked out the ring yet, I bet."

"Lass, cut that out!" Rab shouts. "'E's been embarassed too much already!"

"Uuuuuuggggggghhhhhh!" Veronica starts picking up her clothes. "This entire party is a nightmare!"

"Your face is a nightmare!" Erik calls out.

"Erik, you stop too!" Rab waves his scrubbing stick at Erik.

Erik mutters something under his breath and goes back to swimming. Rab settles back down and resumes his bath.

Veronica huffs as she puts her dress on. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to camp. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with any flirting for a while."

Flirting? Where did that come from? Eleven watches as Veronica walks away. Then, he shakes his head and sits down. If Veronica wants to act weird too, he's just going to let her.

"Hey, 'Leven!" Erik suddenly gets his attention. "You ready to swim yet?"

Eleven's brows furrow as he considers swimming. He could stay right here… but then he risks disappointing Erik. He can't have that. With that in mind, Eleven takes off his shirt once again, tosses it to the side, then gets out of his clothes until he's left in his underwear. Erik grins from ear to ear as Eleven walks into the water.

"Us you glad joined." Erik mutters as Eleven approaches him.

"What?" Eleven pauses right when the water starts lapping at his knees.

"I- I meant-" Erik stammers. "You… great."

"You great?"

Erik swallows hard. "Nevermind." He looks away and scratches the back of his head.

Eleven continues deeper into the water. He quickly joins Erik in swimming about. "So, you having fun?"

Erik nods, pursing his lips.

"That's good." Eleven slows his paddling to a stop. "You think we can swim as fast as Sylvando?"

Erik scoffs. "Nope."

"Won't hurt to try, will it?" Eleven kicks his feet out, propelling himself forward. "C'mon, swim with me."

Eleven starts paddling once again. Then, he gradually builds up speed, and his pants with the increased effort. He glances behind him, and sees flashes of skin and blue hair keeping up behind him. Eleven smiles and goes just a bit faster. Naturally, Erik increases his speed as well, keeping a consistent distance from Eleven.

"That the best you got?" Erik shouts.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Eleven grins and pushes himself a little harder.

Erik flings his arms harder. Both his and Eleven's bodies are starting to reach their limits, but neither of them are willing to back down. They keep on speeding up, pushing themselves until their limbs feel like they'll fling off at any second, and their lungs heave to the point they feel like they've been dipped in magma. Eleven funnels each and every ounce of pep power in his body into propelling himself further, reaching the absolute limit of his body.

A faint gurgling sound reaches Eleven's ears. He risks a glance backwards. Erik is nowhere to be found… but bubbles are floating to the surface a good distance behind Eleven. Eleven stops in his tracks. Those bubbles can only mean one thing.

"Erik!" Eleven barely registers his own voice as he turns around and swims towards the bubbles. 

He hasn't reached the bubbles yet.

Eleven's entire being screams in agony as he pushes the last of his strength into reaching the bubbles. He hates himself for pouring everything into swimming so fast earlier.

He hasn't reached the bubbles yet. They're too far away.

Eleven tries to call on his reserve pep power, but as his muscles burn hot enough to melt steel, he comes to the grave realization that he used it all up. He has to rely on sheer force of will in order to save Erik.

He hasn't reached the bubbles yet. They stop coming up.

Eleven can't feel his arms anymore. It doesn't matter. All that matters is Erik.

He finally reaches where the bubbles were. At least, he thinks they were here. 

He pinches his nose and dives under the water's surface. He can't see anything beyond his arm. He tries his hardest to see flashes of blue, anyway. He fumbles with a numb hand to find any hint of Erik's skin. Why's the water so deep…?

Eleven pushes himself deeper. He barely sees a plant skim over his hand. He looks around. No Erik. He turns around. No Erik. Eleven swims. His lungs hurt. His eyes sting. His body hurts. He swims. Blue…?

He grabs blue. Blue! Erik! Eleven goes up. Keeps holding Erik. Light above them. Eleven goes up. His head pops up. Air! He gasps and heaves. Erik coughs. Eleven hugs Erik tight. Not too tight. Erik needs to breathe.

Eleven sees the land. He swims towards it, keeping Erik in his arm. Erik hardly moves. Eleven doesn't know if he's grateful for that or not. He forces himself to keep going, even as Erik's drags him down. Eleven gulps down air as he forces his body to cooperate, just a little while longer, just until he can get to land!

He pushes against the water with his feet, and when he brings them bavk down, he finally feels precious sand against his feet. His loose grin cannot hope to match the relief in his heart as he stands up and drags Erik onto dry land.

When he's finally reached the water's edge, he collapses, bringing Erik down with him. He just barely remembers to turn Erik onto his side before dropping his own head. Erik coughs so hard that it wracks his body with spasms. Other than that, no one moves. They just rest.

"'Le-ven?" Erik rasps.

Eleven can't muster any more than a grunt.

"What… what happened?"

Eleven briefly points to the water, then drops his hand.

"Oh…"

Everything is silent for a long time. Eleven starts to think that Erik has fallen asleep. Eleven closes his eyes, ready to follow Erik's lead, when Erik speaks up again.

"Did you… save me?"

"Yeah." Eleven forces himself onto his elbows and groans. Even that nearly drains him of what little energy he's recovered. He puts in a valiant effort at holding himself up before giving up and falling back down.

Erik rolls onto his back. His head lolls over to face Eleven, and he smiles. "Thanks."

"Mm…" Eleven didn't really hear him. He just doesn't want to spend any energy on a conversation.

They rest again. This time, Eleven's able to get enough energy to at least sit upright, and he does just that. Erik sits up with him.

"Heh. You saved me. Again." Erik brings up as he looks into the water.

"What would you do without me?" Eleven mumbles.

"Probably die."

Eleven huffs in amusement. "Yeah, you'd die."

"Good thing I had you." Erik pushes his wet hair out of his face and grins. "Y'know, if I had been in there a little while longer, you'd have had to-"

"If you had stayed there any longer, you would've died." Eleven suddenly snaps. "I would've been too weak to do CPR, and your brain wouldn't have gotten any oxygen, and it would've died. You would've died."

"Sorry." Erik holds up his hands in surrender.

Eleven sighs. "I should be the one apologizing. I… I shouldn't have yelled at you. I just… I was scared for you. I could've lost you." Eleven surprises himself with the heartfelt admission, but he knows he meant every word he said.

Erik drops his hands, and the edge of his eyebrows droop. He wraps an arm around Eleven's shoulders and pulls him closer. "Don't worry. I'm made of tougher stuff than that."

"But still…" Eleven pulls his knee to his chest and hugs it with his eyes downcast.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, it's not the first time I've nearly drowned."

It takes Eleven a second to realize what Erik said. When he does, he looks straight at Erik, muscles tensed slightly. "That's horrible!"

"That's just what happened to me. Several times."

"You could've drowned? Several times?!"

Erik sighs. "The Vikings… they would throw me into the water. Said that was the best way to learn to swim. Think they were just trying to see if I'd die or not."

Eleven stares at him for a few seconds, then he wraps him in a crushing hug. "You deserve so much more than what you got."

Erik can't help but smile. He hugs Eleven back and tucks his face between Eleven's neck and shoulder. "Thank you." He whispers.

"I'm just stating a fact." Eleven absentmindedly rubs Erik's back. "In fact, you deserve the whole world. I'd give just about anything to see you happy."

"I feel the same way about you." Erik lifts his head up. His mouth is now perfectly aligned that if he were to lean forward, right now, his lips would meet Eleven's.

Erik's hair, rendered dark blue by the water, clings to his head, framing his perfect face. The sun strikes against him at just the right angle, making his hair and slick skin glow. And his eyes… they shine such a brilliant shade of blue that Eleven finds himself getting drawn in and almost drown in them.

"Erik?"

"Yes?" Erik's lips move so beautifully that for a moment, Eleven entertains just kissing them right then and there.

"I…" Eleven chokes on his words. No matter what he tries, he just can't push them out.

"You…?"

Eleven tries to say those three words…

But then he starts thinking about all the ways this could go wrong! What if Erik won't want to have anything to do with him anymore?! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Shhhh, it's ok." Erik rubs Eleven's back. "Take as much time as you need."

Eleven trembles like a leaf as he forces himself to take several steps back. "We… we need to get back to the others. They'll get worried."

Erik nods. A hint of a frown flashes on his face, then disappears as quickly as it came. "Yeah. We should."


	4. Oh, Honey, You're Not Going Out In THAT!

Eleven and Erik lean on each other as they shuffle their feet along the ground. They huff and puff as they head towards where they last saw the others. A sort of tension lingers in the air between them, caused by words unspoken, but whenever Eleven tries to say those very words, his throat suddenly clenches, and his stomach churns. And so, he keeps quiet.

"Everything ok?" Erik suddenly asks.

"Yeah." Eleven swallows around the lump in his throat. "You?"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Erik casually dismisses.

Eleven leaves it at that. He holds Erik a little tighter as the others start coming into view. They turn their heads towards the boys, and Eleven waves to them. The others run towards them and eventually meet with them.

"Where were you?" Serena is the first to speak. "We were worried sick!"

Eleven looks over the group. Hendrik has joined with them, fully clothed, while the others are in varying states of dress. Serena has thrown on a dress, Jade is wearing pants, Rab has an overcoat on, and all of them are wearing underwear, except for Sylvando, who is completely naked.

"Me and Erik were racing." Eleven answers.

Rab looks them up and down. He takes in their flushed faces and heavy breathing and raises an eyebrow. "If ye say so…"

"Where ever did you dearies go? I must have swam the perimeter a hundred times looking for you!" Sylvando dramatically half-shouts.

"We were at the water's edge for a while." Erik says this time.

Sylvando buries his face in his hands. "I should have checked. I SHOULD HAVE CHEEEEECKED."

"Uh, there there…?" Hendrik awkwardly pats Sylvando's back.

"I'm not sad, dear. But thank you."

"Were you guys looking for us?" Erik asks.

"Of course we were! We were starting to think you'd been attacked by monsters!" Jade pouts, though she feels secret relief.

"I'm sorry I made you guys worry." Eleven's eyes turn downcast. "I didn't intend for me and Erik to stay out so long."

"Well, what mattas is that yer here now." Rab says.

"Yes, we shouldn't worry about things like that. You've both returned safe and sound, and that's all that matters." Serena affirms.

"What were you two doing, anyway?" Jade asks.

"We told you, we were racing." Erik says.

"Uh… huh." Serena frowns slightly.

"You're acting like you don't believe us." Eleven furrows his brows.

Jade shakes her head. "Let's just get back to camp. I'm sick of being soaked."

"Pri- Jade, did you not bring a towel?" Hendrik turns his attention towards Jade.

"Veronica got it soaked." Jade crosses her arms

"You may use mine." Hendrik holds out his towel.

"Thanks." Jade takes it and starts drying herself off as she walks away.

Eleven and Erik look at each other, then they pick up their things and start following Jade's lead.

\-----

Eleven throws on his trenchcoat and quickly buckles it up. Then, he stands up and wrings out his hair. (Which he realized too late that was the wrong order. Oh well.) Then, he raises his bent arm and rolls his shoulder out.

Hendrik has already left the area, while most of the others are still changing. Sylvando is applying sunscreen to his body, and Erik is almost done, but other than that everyone is still putting their shirts and pants on.

"So, did you have fun?" Erik casually asks as he laces up his tunic a bit too tightly for Eleven's liking.

"What?"

"Did you have fun with the race?"

"You… you could have died."

"But I didn't!" Erik flashes a toothy grin that makes butterflies flutter in Eleven's belly.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But then a severe case of Gay Shypox strikes, and all that comes out is a pitiful squeak! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Erik! Have you seen my hairband?" Serena shouts from a distance.

"Think it was by the water!" Erik shouts back. Then, he turns back to Eleven with the arrogant smirk. "So, as I was saying, did you have fun earlier?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But in his enthusiasm, he accidentally breaks wind! How embarassing! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

Erik takes two steps back. "I'll just… wait until you're ready to talk." He picks up his and Eleven's towels and sits down.

"Could you… excuse me for a second?"

"Sure. Do what you need to do."

Eleven turns around and makes a beeline for the trees. Once he's out of immediate view of Erik, he screams at the top of his lungs.

"WHY DO THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENIIIIIING?!?!?!?!" Eleven yanks at his hair and falls to his knees. "WHY DOES MY BODY HATE MEEEEEEEEEE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!" Tears of embarassment stream down his face as he thinks about what just happened. He sobs and buries his face in his hands as he hunches over and forces in a breath.

"Dear…?" Sylvando's voice comes up from behind him. "What's wrong?"

"IIIIII FARTED!!!!!!!!"

"Oh, um, don't worry, that is something we all-"

"IN FRONT OF ERIIIIIIK!!!!!!!!"

"Oh dear…" Sylvando puts his chin in one hand and tilts his head. "Listen, I know these things can be quite embarassing, but rest assured, Erik will probably forget about it in a week."

"NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I FARTED! IN FRONT OF HIM!"

"Shhh," Sylvando rubs his shoulder. "I understand what it's like to do something embarassing in front of someone you fancy, but you shouldn't let it get the better of you. Just take a few deep breaths, dry your eyes, and go back to the others."

"…YOU KNOW ABOUT MY CRUSH?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

"Um, yes?"

Eleven immediately convulses and fallls to the ground.

"Eleven! Are you alright?!"

Eleven doesn't respond. Sylvando turns him onto his side, then straightens his legs out and starts rubbing Eleven's shoulder. After a few minutes, Eleven stops shaking.

"Can you hear me?" Sylvando momentarily stops moving his hand.

"Y, yeah…" Eleven groans.

"Do you want some water?"

"No." Eleven props himself onto his elbows and glances at Sylvando. He sees that Sylvando has put on some pants. Eleven groans sits up. "So. You know."

"Of course I do. I have an eye for this sort of thing."

Eleven sighs. "How long?"

"Since Gallopolis."

Eleven looks away. "I only just realized my feelings for him."

"Really?!" Sylvando seemed truly taken aback by that.

"Yep. I kinda wanna tell him, but…" Eleven clenches and unclenches his fists in silence. "I'm afraid he doesn't feel the same way."

Sylvando manages to recover. He puckers his lips and raises a finger dramatically. "Honey, you need to tell that boy you love him as soon as possible! And by that, I mean AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

"But-"

"No buts! You have to pursue your heart's desire, otherwise it'll just end up in a million pieces!" Sylvando pokes Eleven's chest to prove his point.

"How am I supposed to do that?! I get Shypox whenever I even think about it!"

"Hm," Sylvando pauses to think for a moment. "I think you should simply keep trying until you manage to tell him you love him. However, I've never had to deal with Shypox, so take that with a grain of salt."

"But… I'll die!"

"You won't, dearie. Trust me." Sylvando pats Eleven's shoulder.

Eleven swallows. "How… do I go about it?"

"Good question! First, you get a flower, preferrably a red rose, then get your paramour alone, but don't put them in a situation where they can't run away. That's just creepy. Anyway, once you've done that, present the flower to the object of your affections, then tell them you love them!"

"…That's it?"

"Yes! Well, I would make it extra romantic and showy, but that's just moi. You, honey, should keep it short, sweet, and simple." Sylvando waves a finger around. "You don't want to give your Shypox more time to kick in, after all."

"Ok, let's say I do all of that. Then what?" Eleven crosses his legs underneath him.

Sylvando sighs. "You know what? This is a conversation that would best be held when I'm fully clothed."

\-----

Sylvando returned wearing one of his usual jester outfits to the same spot he had left Eleven in. He sits down next to him and crosses his legs.

"So, have you thought about how you'll tell him?" Sylvando starts with.

Eleven shakes his head. "I'm just trying to figure out how he'll react."

"Dear," Sylvando wraps an arm around Eleven's shoulders. "Don't think about that. In fact, try not to think. Just go do it."

"Easier said than done. What if he doesn't feel the same way?"

"Goddess give me strength." Sylvando mutters under his breath. "Just… just grab some flowers, find him, and say it."

"You said to get him red roses, right?" Eleven asks.

"Preferrably. Any flowers will do."

"Where do I even get roses? I mean, they don't really grow-"

Sylvando snaps his fingers, and a bouquet of roses appears in his hand, tied together with a white cloth and a ribbon tied in a pretty bow.

"O-oh, you just…" Eleven takes the roses. "I forgot you could do that."

"So do I, at times. Now go pursue your heart's desire." Sylvando shoos him with his hand.

"…Now? I mean, just now I farted in front of Erik."

Sylvando sucks in a breath. "Alright, maybe not right at this moment." He snaps again, and the roses disappear. "But we should take this time to help you get ready. No point in wasting daylight, after all."

"How so?"

"By giving you a makeover, of course!" Sylvando grins and winks. "You want to look nice for Erik, after all!"

"Uh, I appreciate the offer, but…" Eleven looks Sylvando's outfit up and down. "I-I think he'd appreciate my authentic self…"

"Don't worry, dearie, I'll simply accentuate your best features. You'll look so stunning that Erik won't know what hit him!"

"Sylv, I don't mean to doubt your skills, but have you ever applied makeup before?"

"Of course I have! I work in the show business!"

Eleven decides to humor Sylvando. "So what exactly will you be doing?"

"I'm glad you asked! First of all, I shall buy you a nice outfit, then I'll do your hair, makeup, and I shall spray a bit of perfume on you."

"…That's it?"

"Yep! By the time I'm done, you'll be ready to be kissed senseless!" Sylvando clasps his hands together as he imagines how beautiful Eleven will look. "Or to catch Erik in your arms as he swoons into your embrace!" He adds with a huge grin on his face. "Ah, to be young and in love."

"So, uh, when are we doing this?" Eleven tentatively asks.

"Why, we can do it right now! We might as well, since the ball's already rolling."

"Uh," Eleven pauses to consider. "Sure?"

"Great! Let's tell the others, and we'll be off!" Sylvando gets up and holds out his hand to Eleven. Eleven takes it and lets himself be helped onto his feet.

\-----

"Oh, daaaarlings~" Sylvando hollers as he skips into camp.

"Hey!" Jade waves to him.

"Greetings." Hendrik has a hint of a smile on his face when he sees Sylvando.

"Me and Elly-poo need to do some emergency shopping, so we shall be gone for most of the day!"

"Ok. Have fun." Jade goes back to what she was doing.

"Eleven," Sylvando turns to Eleven with a grin. "Do your thing."

Eleven takes a deep breath as he channels his magic power. "Where to?"

"To Puerto Valor, of course! They have the finest outfits in all Erdrea!"

Eleven takes Sylvando's hand and thinks of Puerto Valor. His gaze involuntarily drifts to Hendrik, who lifts something to his mouth and bites into it with a loud crunch. All of a sudden, the magic dissipates.

"Is that a raw potato?" Eleven blurts out.

Hendrik holds up a finger as he chews. Then, he swallows. "Yes."

"Why are you eating a raw potato of all things?"

"Bedroom thoughts."

"Ewwww." Jade scrunches up her face. "Keep that to yourself."

"You're one to talk." Hendrik murmurs.

"What do bedrooms have to do with potatoes?" Eleven glances between Hendrik and Jade.

Everyone slowly turns to look at Eleven. His skin prickles under the attention.

"What?" Eleven says. Did he miss something?

Hendrik awkwardly scratches the side of his scalp. "Um, did you see that Nor- Sylvando was naked earlier?"

"Yeah?"

"There's your answer." Hendrik resumes his meal.

"I… I still don't get it. I need an actual explanation."

Hendrik blushes. "I'm going to run out of potatoes at this rate…" He grumpily says aloud.

"You see," Jade begins, lifting her hands and gesticulating mildly. "When two or more people reaaaaally love each other-"

"I know what they do! I just wanna know what that has to do with thinking about bedrooms!"

Jade pinches the bridge of her nose. "Y'know what, grandpa can explain. I'm not doing this."

"What-"

"Uh, maybe I should explain." Sylvando interjects. "But we need to get to Puerto Valor while there's still light out, so remind me later, dearie."

Eleven stares at Hendrik and his extremely complicated meal for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "Hendrik, you're a disaster."

"I am aware of that." Hendrik says in-between bites.

"Dear?" Sylvando pokes Eleven's arm.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll Zoom us." Eleven repeats the procedure for the Zoom spell, and he and Sylvando float into the air and hover for a second before zooming into the air and landing on Puerto Valor's famous bridge. "So where are we going?"

"There's this absolutely wonderful clothing shop that sells absolute masterpieces at an amazing price. I guarantee you'll love it!" Sylvando dance-walks his way to the marketplace, with Eleven following behind with a normal stride. Eventually, Sylvando stops in front of a humble, inconspicuous store and looks it up and down with a smile. "You know, this store hasn't changed at all since I was just a little baby in mi papi's arms." Then, he opens the door, ringing a bell mechanism attached to it, and he and Eleven step inside.

"Welcome!" The store clerk smiles as they greet the new customers. "Do you need more costumes? We just made a bunch."

"Oh no no no, I'm not here for that. I'm here because this young man-" Sylvando thumps Eleven's shoulder. "Is going to tell his crush he likes him."

"Oh, I see! Follow me." The clerk goes behind a cloth partition.

Eleven follows the clerk. They have a measuring tape in their hands, and they're standing next to a large mirror and a chair.

"I'll need to take your measurements. Could you please take off everything except your underwear?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But they just asked him to strip in front of them! It's too much for Eleven's poor heart! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Don't mind him, he just has Shypox!" Sylvando says from the other side of the partition.

"Uh, ok." The clerk mentally shrugs.

Eleven takes a deep breath and lifts his head up. Then, he begins to take off his clothes until he's left in his boxers and furiously blushing.

"Ok, now lift your arms up"

Eleven does just that. The clerk makes a million seemingly arbitrary measurements and writes each of them down. Then, they roll up their tape. Eleven lowers his arms.

"Wait here. I'll get you some clothes." The clerk walks off. They return with some clothes on hangers. "I've brought you some formal clothes based on your measurements. Let me know if you have any questions." Then, they hand the clothes over and leave as quickly as they came.

Eleven puts the clothes on a hook and looks them over one by one. He's a bit overwhelmed by just how fancy these clothes look. He decides to throw on a random shirt and pants.

"So, Elly, have you tried on an outfit yet?" Sylvando asks, still giving Eleven privacy.

"Yeah. Think I look pretty good, if I do say so myself." Eleven says as he looks himself in the mirror.

"May I see?"

"Sure."

Sylvando steps around the partition. He takes one look at Eleven's outfit, and he purses his lips.

"Well?" Eleven looks up at Sylvando expectantly.

"It's, um, good, but how about we try on a different outfit? Like," Sylvando looks through the clothes and pulls out a different shirt and pants. "This! It will surely compliment your physique!"

"Won't Erik be more focused on my face?"

"Um, yes, but, well, you want everything else to look nice as well. A pretty face means nothing if everything else looks like garbage."

"But I like this outfit." Eleven frowns.

Sylvando resists the urge to facepalm. This is going to be one long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the fart line is an actual thing that can happen. in fact, i was talking about it w my friend the other day, then i started replaying this game and i get to a campsite and talk to erik. lo and behold, shypox kicked in, and i got a certain line. ill give you 3 guesses what that line is


	5. Almost, But Not Quite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me: tra la la la la im gonna write a nice cute fic  
> brain: shove your mental illness hcs in there  
> me: but i dont want to  
> brain: shove  
> me: it doesnt fit the tone of this fic  
> brain: SHOVE  
> me: its not even relevant!  
> brain: S H O V E

By the time Sylvando is done, Eleven has tried on dozens of outfits, smelled so many perfumes he nearly vomited, and had to put up with Sylvando spreading makeup all over his face while he had to resist the urge to scratch his face off. And at that point, several hours had passed, leaving Eleven feeling like a walking corpse.

"Will that be all, sir?" The makeup store clerk asks as she bags up the makeup.

Sylvando glances at Eleven, then back to her. "Certainly! By the way, has anyone told you your hair is absolutely lovely?"

The clerk beamed at that. "Thank you!"

"No problem, dearie! After all, it costs nothing to conpliment someone!" Sylvando says with a wink.

"I'd die for you!"

Sylvando freezes. "What."

"What?"

Eleven sighs and shakes his head. "It's just something people say. Don't pay any attention to it."

"I, uh…" Sylvando clears his throat. "Do you… need to talk to someone?"

"Nope." The clerk hands Sylvando the bag. "Have a good day!"

"Thanks, you too." Eleven takes the bag while Sylvando looks between him and the clerk. "Cmon, Sylv." He tugs on Sylvando's arm.

"Actually," Sylvando looks back to the clerk. "Could you give me a second?"

Eleven dramatically groans. "We've spent literal hours shopping! I wanna get back to the others!"

"Don't worry dearie, this will only take a second!" Sylvando whips out a pen and a scrap of paper, then writes something and gives the paper to the clerk. "This woman will be able to help you, or at least be a sympathetic ear."

The clerk takes it and reads over it with a confused expression. "I… don't understand."

"Don't worry about that, honey. Just send her a letter or something. She's always happy to help." Sylvando offers her a small smile, then walks out of the store.

"What'd you give her?" Eleven asks, handing the bag to Sylvando.

"The contact information for a local therapist."

"Why?"

"I felt as though she needed it." Sylvando explains. "Even if she didn't NEED it, it's always good to see a therapist every once in a while. Practically everyone could use a session."

"Why'd you think she needed it?"

Sylvando loses his characteristic smile. "Because you don't just joke about dying."

"You've never visited the Last Bastion, then." Eleven casually mentions. "People there joke about death all the time."

"I…" Sylvando stops in his tracks. His lips move, but nothing comes out. "Does Hendrik…?"

"No." Eleven tells him. "Y'know, you act like you haven't encountered morbid humor before."

"I have, with individuals, but… Everyone in the Bastion?"

"Yep. Especially the Cobblestonians."

Sylvando pauses to ponder this. In a way, he supposes it makes sense, since Heliodor was hit the hardest, but for morbid humor to be common?

This is a sign of a much bigger problem.

"Hey Sylv," Eleven's voice snaps him out of his thoughts. "You there?"

"Uh, yes!"

"Are we done shopping?"

"Sure." Sylvando forces a smile and takes Eleven's hand. "Shall we?"

Eleven closes his eyes and focuses on his magic as his mind drifts to his friends. In a flash of light, he and Sylvando appear back at camp.

"So then I was just sitting there, barbeque sauce slathered all over my pectorals…" Hendrik trails off once he registers Sylvando's and Eleven's presence. "Oh, hello. I trust your trip went well?"

"Of course, honey!" Sylvando holds up his bags with one hand. "Eleven's going to look superb by the time I'm done with him!"

"Oh?" Erik crawls out of his tent, bumping into Veronica, who was sitting in front of the entrance listening to Hendrik's story. "What's the occasion?"

Sylvando gasps, but quickly regains his composure. "You'll see." He gives Erik a sly wink.

Eleven, however, wasn't so quick to regain his bearings. His face goes bright red, and he fiddles with his suddenly fascinating sleeve.

"Eleven, are you alright?" Serena asks him from the other side of the fire pit. "You seem quite nervous."

"I'mfine." Eleven mutters far too fast.

"What?"

"I'm. Fine." Eleven forces out. The heat in his face spreads to his ears.

"If you say so…" Serena frowns as she drops the issue.

"So, Hendrik, what were you saying?" Veronica says, leaning forward slightly.

Hendrik's eyebrows furrow, and his constant frown deepens. "I seem to have forgotten."

"Oh, come on!" Erik groans. "I was just getting into it!"

"I apologize. My memory hasn't been the same since Yggdrasil."

"Ugh, whatever. Tell us when you remember." Erik pouts.

"I shall." Hendrik nods to him.

Eleven silently steps around Veronica and Erik as he goes into his tent. He automatically goes to his side of the bed and lays facedown on a pillow. His heart's beating like crazy once again, the mere thought of being caught preparing to confess to his crush by that same crush making him want to curl up in the blankets and hide forever. Maybe in a million years, some archaeologists will unearth him, still hiding from his Erik.

Eleven hears some shuffling behind him. He doesn't have to look to know who it is.

"Hey." Erik sits next to Eleven. "Missed you."

"Missed you too." Eleven mumbles into the pillow.

"Feel any better?"

"No."

"Sorry to hear that." Erik reaches down to rub at Eleven's back. "Did you at least have fun?"

"No."

"That's a shame." Erik frowns. His thumb comes up to pet the base of Eleven's neck. "I wanted to ask you something when you got back, but it can wait."

Eleven's entire body tenses.

"Don't worry, it's not anything bad. In fact, you might like it." Erik lays down on his side, front facing Eleven. "Buuuut you're clearly too tired for it. I'll ask you tomorrow."

"Mkay." Eleven blindly fumbles around until he finds Erik, then scoots a little closer to him.

"Goodnight." Erik hugs Eleven.

Just before Eleven falls asleep, a fluttering yet firm feeling greets the back of his head. He convinces himself he imagined it, then falls into warm slumber.

\-----

When Eleven wakes up, he finds himself alone. He rubs the sleep from his eyes, then pushes the tent flaps open and steps outside. Jade and Veronica are starting a fire, Serena and Rab are sorting medicinal supplies, Hendrik is busy brooding, Erik's whittling something, and Sylvia is adjusting her outfit.

"Ah, Eleven, just the man I wanted to see!" Sylvia smiles and hops over to Eleven. "I hope you got plenty of sleep last night!"

"Well, I WAS pretty tired after all that shopping." Eleven verbally shrugs.

"It will all be worth it, I assure you." Sylvia pats Eleven on the back. "Everyone! I need to borrow Eleven for a while!"

Erik looks up from his work. "Again?"

"Yep!"

Erik throws down his work and stands up. "But I hardly saw him yesterday because of you!"

Sylvia defensively throws up her hands. "I just need him for a while!"

"Oh yeah? What for?"

"Erik." Eleven turns his gaze towards Erik. 

Erik immediately stills. "Yes?"

Eleven goes up and hugs him. Erik immediately hugs him back and smiles.

"Don't worry. I promise we'll get to see each other again today. I just need to do some things with Sylvia real quick."

"But…" Erik sighs. "Don't keep me waiting like last time, ok?"

"I'll try not to." Eleven leans away from the hug, but doesn't quite break it. His hands find themselves cupping Erik's cheeks.

Erik smiles softly as he and Eleven stare into each other's eyes. Their breathing slows as the whole world comes to a halt. All they can see, feel, hear are each other. A faint blush forms on Erik's cheeks as his eyes flutter shut.

"Oh, give me a break!" Veronica huffs dramatically. "If you're going to kiss, at least do it away from me!"

Erik's eyes snap open. Eleven stumbles backwards, his cheeks flaring red as he feels another bout of Shypox crash over him. He hides his face and hunches over from sheer embarassment.

"Now now, take it easy." Rab says to her. "It's not like they do much."

"Still!" Veronica crosses her arms and turns her head up and away.

"We weren't even gonna kiss!" Erik blurts out.

"Yeah, right! And I'm not stuck looking like I'm eight!"

Sylvia wraps a strong arm around Eleven's back and coughs. "Honey, I think we should go now, while there's still daylight out."

Eleven lets himself be guided away from camp while everyone there starts breaking into an argument. His Shypox still keeps its ice-cold grip on him, forcing him to stay 'hidden' from the rest of the world and muting every word before it even reaches his tongue.

"Are you alright, dearie?" Eleven barely hears Sylvando say.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in his peripheral vision…

But the Shypox stops his tongue just before he manages to recover! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Oh dear…" Sylvia pats his back. "Would you like to hear some jokes?"

Eleven forces himself to swallow around the lump in his throat before speaking. "Sure."

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Little old lady."

"Little old lady who?"

"Oh my, I didn't know you could yodel!" Sylvia presses her fingertips to her chest.

Eleven goes quiet. Then, he chuckles slightly, and stands up straight. "That's a good one"

"Thank you. I came up with it on the spot."

"Dang."

Sylvia smiles. "Let's get going, shall we?"

"Where are we going?" Eleven asks as they start walking again.

"To get some privacy for your makeover. There's this spot I found that's absolutely perrrr-fect~!"

Eleven's gut churns. "I'm really gonna tell him, huh?"

"Don't worry, darling, you'll be fine!"

"I hope so." Eleven's eyes turn downcast as a small clearing next to the water's edge comes into view, with a moss-covered tree stump sitting innocently in the grass.

Sylvia gracefully turns and walks backwards, then seemingly glides into a sitting position on the stump and crosses her legs in such a way that it dramatically lifted her leg in the air, reminding Eleven of the puff-puff girls. Not that he's, uh, seen for himself. Much.

"Come, sit." Sylvia pats the stump.

Eleven shuffles his feet towards Sylvia and lands on the stump with a loud thud. Sylvia takes Eleven's chin and tilts his head towards her, then brushes his hair back and puts it in a hairband. Then, she opens a small bag and pulls out a mirror and some makeup.

"I was thinking about making you look extravagant," Sylvia pours some foundation onto a cone-shaped sponge. "But I decided a simpler look would suit you better, so I'll just apply some foundation and lipstick."

"Why'd you spend so much time shopping for makeup if you were just going to do that?"

"One, it's surprisingly difficult to find the right foundation due to different lightings making it look weird." Sylvia spreads the foundation on Eleven's face. "Two, I hadn't decided on what look to aim for. Third… I got a bit side-tracked." Sylvia sheepishly admits.

Eleven stays quiet as Sylvia puts the sponge down and picks up the lipstick. She pops the protective casing off, then twists it until a pink stick pops out.

"Part your lips, dear."

Eleven parts them. Sylvia smears the lipstick all over Eleven's lips until they turn a beautiful shade of pink, then she rubs a few stray smudges with her thumb. She takes out a bottle of perfume, takes a few steps back, and sprays near Eleven.

"There! I'm done!" Sylvia declares as she puts her makeup away.

"That's it?"

"Yep! You're ready to make Erik drop dead from too much gay!"

Eleven blushes and scratches the back of his head. "But I farted in front of him…"

Don't worry dear. He's probably forgotten about it by now." Sylvia dismissively waves her hand.

"But-"

"Shh!" Sylvia moves to press her finger to Eleven's lips, then thinks better of it and keeps it a few inches away from his face. "You're going to tell him you love him, and then you two will kiss, go on a date, and become boyfriends who will eventually settle down and get married."

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But the very thought of marrying Erik makes his face go bright red! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

Sylvia flicks her wrist, pulling roses out of nowhere, then she sets them in Eleven's lap. "I'll give you some time to recover, then I'll get Erik here. Make sure you don't touch your face."

She comfortingly squeezes Eleven's arm, then gets up and walks away, but not before flashing Eleven a smile. Then, she disappears into the treeline.

\-----

"Eleven…?" Erik steps out of the treeline.

Eleven's head shoots up. "Oh, hey! Erik! Great! Good to see you!" He babbles.

"Sylvia told me you needed to talk to me about something." Erik approaches Eleven.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him...

But all that comes out is an awkward squeak! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Are those… roses?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But he just can't bring himself to look them in the eye! …But where should he look?! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Uh, you ok?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But he's suddenly struck by how attractive they are, and his heart starts pounding fit to burst! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Eleven?"

Eleven's throat seizes, and his entire body trembles. He forces air into his lungs and pries his hands away from his face. Erik is bending down to Eleven's level, with his hands on his knees for support, and he's got his head slightly tilted to the side.

"Y-yeah?" Eleven stutters, his throat feeling the dryest it's ever been in his entire life.

"Something wrong?"

"I…" Eleven shakes his head. "No. Not that."

Erik reaches up to clasp Eleven's shoulder. "It's ok, you can tell me."

"I just, well, I…" Eleven looks down and fiddles with his sleeve. "Wanted… to… tellyousomething."

Erik blinks. "What?"

Eleven audibly gulps. He glances at the roses, then he takes a deep, deep breath and looks at Erik. "The truth is… I…"

Erik leans forward ever so slightly, and his lips part perfectly. He looks so… adorable. So kissable. Eleven's mouth moves, but no sound comes out. Erik's eyebrows furrow, and in that moment, he looks like a confused puppy.

"You…?" Erik gently prompts, rubbing a circle into Eleven's shoulder.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But then he worries about whether or not his breath smells! Could he even tell?! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Eleven, whatever it is, you can tell me. I promise I won't judge." Erik gives Eleven a look so sincere that, if Eleven didn't have Shypox, would have been the final push to tell Erik his feelings.

But Eleven had Shypox.

He stands up straight, Erik straightening up as well to accomodate him. Then, Eleven lets out an ear-piercing scream, slams the roses into Erik's face, and bolts into the treeline. And as for Erik, he freezes for a moment, then looks at where Eleven went. He gently picks up the roses that had fallen, then sits on the stump.

"What in the world just happened…?" He mutters to no one in particular as his fingers drag across the petals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if i wrote something about applying makeup wrong pls correct me


	6. You Guys Are Gonna Hate Me For This

"…And then I ran away."

Sylvia pinches the bridge of her nose. "You ran away."

"Yeah." Eleven doesn't need to look up to see Sylvia's exasperation.

"Without telling him."

"Yeah."

"Did you at least give him the flowers?"

"Yeah." Eleven mutters. "Well, I shoved them into his face and ran."

Sylvia purses her lips. "Dear?"

"Yeah?"

"That isn't enough to convey your feelings."

"Hey, I tried, ok?! The stupid Shypox kicked in, and I just couldn't do it!"

Sylvia holds up her hands in casual surrender. "And I believe you, but you need to tell Erik at some point. Preferrably today."

"How do you expect me to do that when Shypox punched me in the face several times last time? Last time I checked, it never takes it easy on me!"

"I never said it would." Sylvia brings up, lowering her hands. "But you can push through it. You just have to keep trying."

"Sylv, I embarassed myself in front of Erik. Again. I'm not exactly inclined to do so a third time."

"I know, but…" Sylvia sighs tiredly. "Sometimes, you have to take that risk in order to find love."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have Shypox." Eleven grumbles, lips turned downwards. He crosses his arms and turns his head away from Sylvia.

"Believe it or not, I used to be nervous about love confessions. I was utterly convinced that my crushes would never reciprocate my feelings - then I told them, and found out they did."

Eleven groans. "But you're you! Of course they did!"

"Which is why Erik will reciprocate your feelings. You're you." Sylvia emphasizes the last word, pointing at Eleven's chest. "And Erik most definitely loves that about you."

Eleven blinks in surprise. Then, his eyes turn downcast again, and his arms drop to his sides. Sylvia gives him a small smile, then embraces him in her signature Sylv Hug.

"Honey, don't worry about embarassing yourself. Just get those three words out, and everything will work itself out."

"…Promise?"

"I promise. I'll even pinky swear on it." Sylvia pulls back and offers her pinky.

Eleven raises his pinky to Sylvia's and interlocks them. Then, he pulls back and smiles. "Everything's gonna be ok." He says, more to solidify the sentiment than anything.

"That's the spirit!" Sylvia beams, making a fist pump. "You'll be giving Erik a billion smooches in no time!"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But then the mental image of kissing Erik pops into his head, and now it's all he can think about! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Oh dear…" Sylvia tilts her head to the side and places her palm on her jaw.

\-----

Sylvia cartwheels, then launches herself into the air and lands in front of Hendrik with a graceful bow. She winks and loudly smooches the air, then she stands up. "Helloooo~! Did you lovelies miss me while I was gone?"

"You weren't gone for that long." Hendrik points out.

"I know, I just like to see who says they did." Sylvia pats Hendrik's shoulder, then turns to the rest of the group. "So, how is everyone on this fine day?"

"Great." Jade takes a sip of her drink, staring directly at Serena, who's laughing over something Rab said.

"I'm just about ready to leave this place behind." Veronica huffs.

Erik stays silent. He thumbs the petals on his roses and sighs wistfully. He glances up, and notices Eleven walking into the camp. He smiles and sits up straight.

"Hey." He says to Eleven, giving him a slight wave.

Eleven tries to talk to the person across from him…

But he can feel everyone's eyes on him, and it's all he can think about! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

Erik's smile falls. He puts his flowers down, stands up, and goes up to Eleven. "Have you calmed down now?"

"What does it look like?" Eleven hoarsely croaks from behind his hands.

Erik frowns. "Sorry."

Eleven shakes his head as he moves his hands away. "You have nothing to apologize for."

"Oh. Ok." Erik's cheek turn a shade redder as he scratches the back of his head.

"So, uh, did I miss anything?" Eleven asks, more to change the subject than anything.

"Uh, Rab said we need more stuff before we head out. Think he said we needed medical supplies."

Eleven sighs. "And he wants me to get them."

"Yep. But don't worry, you'll get to hang out with me in the meantime." Erik flashes him a big grin.

Eleven can't help but smile back. "You always did know how to make a grocery run into something actually enjoyable."

"What can I say? That's one of my many talents."

"So, uh, who else are we going with?"

"Serena and Hendrik."

"When are we leaving?"

"Whenever you're ready."

Eleven nods. "I'll go get my sword."

\-----

Eleven hacks the stalk clean through, then bends down and picks up the freshly-cut flowers. They'll make for some fine armor.

"I think that's everything." Eleven says, slipping the flowers into his bag of holding. "You guys wanna head back to camp?"

"Actually, I was hoping to stick around and admire the scenery." Serena says, glancing at the beautiful surroundings.

"Guys?" Eleven looks to the others.

"I concur with Serena. I need some quiet time, myself." Hendrik chimes in.

"Well, it's not like I've got something to do." Erik adds. "Let's stay here for a bit longer."

Eleven nods. "Ok, anything in particular you guys wanna do?"

"I want to make flower crowns." Hendrik says.

"I wish to take a minute to admire this weather."

"And I just wanna find loot." Erik smirks.

Eleven opens his mouth to speak, but then he shuts it. He glances at Erik, then to the others. "You, uh, think you can handle yourself?"

"Uh, about that… my hand's sore, and I don't think I'll be able to fight as well. Could you come with me?" After a beat, Erik adds: "For some backup?"

"Of course we'll go with you. You don't even need to ask."

"Uh, I meant the two of us. Alone. Without the others."

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But his mind wanders to the implications of such a statement! Does Erik want to kiss him?! Does Erik want to talk about earlier?! Both of these situations are too much for Eleven to even think about! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"I-I mean, you don't have to, I'd just… like to spend some time with you." Is Erik… blushing? "Since we didn't really see each other yesterday, and all that."

"I, uh," Eleven can physically feel the moment his brain short-circuits. "FLOWERS!"

"…Flowers?"

Eleven internally cringes. "I-I mean… you like flowers? I bet Hendrik does too! We can all make flower crowns! Together!"

"I would like that." Hendrik adds as his input.

"See? Flower crowns! Hendrik approves!"

Erik frowns as he considers this. "Y'know what? Sure. I've always wanted to learn how to make one anyway."

"Great! Let's, uh, find a flower field and get to work, then!"

"Aren't we standing in the middle of a million flowers?" Serena points out.

Eleven looks around, and his blush grows darker. "Yes. Yes we are." He sits down, careful not to crush any flowers, and the others do the same. Erik sits with his knee touching Eleven's, making Eleven's heart beat so fast it's ready to explode.

"So, how do I make flower crowns?" Erik asks.

"You braid the flowers together. Let me show you." Hendrik uses his knife to cut some flowers, then gathers them on his lap. "Cut the stems so that they're all the same length, and remove any leaves or thorns."

Eleven watches as Erik plucks some flowers with his lucky knife. He doesn't seem to be truly focused, though. Every so often, he would glance at Eleven and blush.

"You haven't picked any flowers." Erik points out.

"Huh? Oh yeah!" Eleven rips some flowers out by the roots.

"Eleven, are you feeling alright?" Serena asks.

"Yep! Fit as a fiddle! Why do you ask?"

Serena frowns. "May I speak to you away from the others? It's nothing bad, I just wish to talk."

Eleven swallows, and his heart starts pounding again. "Sure."

Serena guides Eleven out of earshot and sits him down in a different part of the field. "I've noticed you've been especially nervous lately."

"No I'm not!"

Serena puts her hand on Eleven's shoulder. "It's ok, I won't judge you for how you're feeling."

"…Ok, maybe I am a bit nervous." Eleven sheepishly admits.

"Do you know the reason behind this?"

Eleven picks at the stems on his flowers.

"Hm. It's because of Erik, isn't it?"

Eleven lets out a choked sound, resounding deep in his throat.

"Did… something happen between you two?"

Eleven shakes his head.

"Is it the… incident with Rab?"

Eleven shakes his head again.

"What was it, then?"

Eleven blushes. "Promise not to tell anyone?"

"I promise."

"I… tried to…" Eleven mumbles the rest.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

Eleven curls in on himself.

"Eleven?"

"I tried to tell him I love him…" Eleven mutters only slightly louder.

Serena blinks. "I thought he was your boyfriend?"

"What?!" Eleven jolts up with a gasp. "Oh, no no no! He's not my boyfriend!"

"He's… not?"

"No! W-why would you think that?"

"I just…" Serena shuts her mouth for a moment and bites her lip. "Thought you two were together."

"We're not!"

"And I believe you." Serena tells him.

"Oh. Ok." Eleven wipes his suddenly sweaty brow. Then, he feels something brush against the back of his head. He turns around…

And sees Erik standing there with an unreadable expression.

"Erik?!" Eleven recoils in shock. "You- how- how long have you been standing there?!"

Erik's eyes turn downcast, and he turns his body away from Eleven. "Just got here."

"So you didn't hear anything?"

"No." Erik rapidly blinks. "Nothing."

Eleven sighs in relief. "That's good."

A pregnant silence follows. It's Serena who breaks it.

"Is there something you need?"

Erik sluggishly bends down and picks up a finished flower crown. "Just wanted to show you guys my flower crown."

"Oh?" Eleven looks at Erik's flower crown. "It's pretty."

"Thanks." Erik mumbles. "Listen, I'm gonna go back to camp now. You guys… stay here. Do what you need to."

"Erik?" Eleven reaches for Erik… but only grasps at air.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Erik's stride is fast, almost too fast for a normal walk.

"Erik!" Eleven scrambles to his feet and dashes towards Erik as fast as he can. "Erik, what's wrong?" He grasps Erik's arm, but can't get so much as a grip on it before Erik yanks his arm away.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Eleven's mouth gapes open as he pulls back his hand. Erik continues as if nothing happened, hugging himself as he walks away. All Eleven can do is stare as the distance between them grows larger and larger.

What has he done…?


	7. Misunderstandings

"Eleven?" A strong voice shakes Eleven out of his shock. "What happened?"

Eleven opens his mouth, but no sound comes out. His eyes sting, and his vision blurs as Erik's form grows distant. He presses his fist to his mouth as tears begin to flow.

Serena's lips press into a thin line as her brows furrow together. "I'm afraid Erik heard something he wasn't supposed to."

"What exactly did he hear?"

Serena looks to Eleven. He's hardly moved since his and Erik's… misunderstanding. "Something Eleven only wanted me to hear, I guess."

"You didn't answer the question." Hendrik takes a step further, height leading to him overshadowing Serena. "What did he hear?" He repeats, voice dropping to a growl.

Serena's eyes turn downcast, and she turns away. "Eleven said that he and Erik aren't boyfriends, and, well… you saw how Erik reacted."

"What?!" Hendrik presses his hand flat to his chest. "What would possibly possess him to say such a thing?!"

"Apparently, Eleven wanted to tell him he loved him, since he hadn't done so yet, and I said that I thought they were already together, but apparently they weren't yet."

Hendrik's mouth hangs open as his gaze flits between Eleven and Serena. "They weren't…?"

Serena nods. She turns to Eleven and puts her hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Eleven swallows. "No."

Serena looks down as she tries to think of something - anything - that would help the situation. "Um, do you want to finish making that flower crown?" As soon as words leave her mouth, Serena mentally kicks herself. Of course Eleven doesn't want to make flower crowns!

"No." Eleven answers as predicted. He falls to his knees and covers his face as he breaks down sobbing.

Hendrik crouches down and pats Eleven's back. "There there."

"I, fuck…" Eleven sniffles. "Why do these things always happen to me?!" He full-on screams, punching the ground. "Why couldn't I just tell him how I feel…?" He falls forward, throwing his arms out in front of him just before his face hits the dirt. Then, his entire body trembles as he sobs his heart out. "Erik must think I hate him…"

"I'm sure he doesn't." Hendrik tells him, brows furrowing in worry. "He probably just had a bad day or something…" But judging by Hendrik's tone, he's not so certain himself.

"Maybe we should look for him." Serena suggests.

"Didn't you hear him?! He doesn't wanna see me!"

"But it's dangerous to be running around on your own. Erik might get hurt." Serena points out.

Eleven's fists suddenly tighten. His head shoots up, and before he knows it, he's scrambling to his feet. "Erik! Erik, wait!" He sprints in Erik's direction as fast as his feet can carry him.

Serena and Hendrik take one look at him, and start going after him.

\-----

"Erik!" Eleven rasps. "Erik, please, answer me!"

Eleven's hoarse shouts are met with silence.

"Please!"

Just silence.

"Eriiiik!" Serena cups her hands to her mouth and calls out to him. "Where are you?"

Hendrik follows a few steps behind, frown growing deeper with each passing second. "Do you think he went back to camp?"

"We already checked." Eleven tells him. "Erik! Erik?"

"Hm, it won't hurt to check again. After all, I doubt he'd abandon us altogether." Serena brings up after a few seconds of pondering.

Eleven's blood runs cold. "What if he did?"

"Let's not jump to conclusions. I'm certain he's still in the area." Serena tells him, being the voice of reason. "How about we check camp again? If Erik's there, we'll find him. If he's not, we keep looking."

Eleven blinks away tears and nods. He takes Serena's and Hendrik's hand and concentrates on their current campsite. In a flash of light, the party are whisked away into the camp. Right away, they can hear someone hiccup. It takes Eleven a second to recognize the sound of sobbing.

"Erik, that you?!" Eleven runs over to his and Erik's tent and rips open the flap.

Inside, Erik is lying on his side, with his head in Jade's lap. Tears run down Erik's face as Jade strokes his hair. They both look up when Eleven bursts into the tent. Jade purses her lips as Eleven approaches.

"Erik, where did you go? We were worried sick about you!" Eleven crawls into the tent.

Erik turns his face into Jade's leg. His heartbreaking sobs don't stop. Won't stop. His chest heaves with each one, like the very act requires a feat of herculean strength.

"Eleven," Jade bites coldly. "What are you doing here?"

"Wh-" Eleven's eyes dart between Jade and Erik. "What do you mean?"

Jade sighs. Her hand not in Erik's hair balls into a fist. "You led him on."

"…What?!" Eleven blinks incredulously.

"You led him on." Jade repeats, ice seeping into her tone. "Made him think you were together."

"What- I-" Eleven stutters. "There must be some sort of misunderstanding!"

"Oh, I understand enough." Jade cracks her knuckles. "Erik, get off my lap for a second."

\-----

"Alright, hold still, laddie." Rab raises his hand and transfers healing magic into Eleven.

Eleven blinks back tears as the growing bruise dissipates, and the pain in his jaw fades. He swallows the lump in his throat and stares at a blade of grass.

"That should do it." Rab pats Eleven's arm. When Eleven doesn't respond, Rab pats his arm again. "Eleven…?"

"I hurt him…" Eleven mutters in a monotone voice.

"Erik?"

Eleven nods. His gaze wanders over to his and Erik's tent against his will. "I didn't mean to…"

Rab sighs and looks where Eleven is looking. "I'm a'feared that's inevitable in relationships."

"But we weren't together… were we?"

"You weren't?" Rab's eyebrows raise comically high.

Eleven tries to talk to the person next to him…

But the words get caught in his throat, and he finds himself tongue-tied! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Don't ye worry, jus' take yer time. Eleven? Please don't cry, it-it's ok, I'm sure it weren't your fault. Disagreements are inevitable-"

Eleven throws himself into Rab's arms and clutches him tight. "I didn't know!" He screeches as hot tears hit Rab's shoulder. "I loved him, and I- I screwed everything up!"

"Shhh, everything's gonna be ok. What happened?"

Eleven sobs louder and shakes his head.

"I see. Ya don't have to tell me. Not if ya don't wanna."

And for that, Eleven is grateful. He doesn't want to share every single detail, he just wants to cry and cry and cry until he forms a river. He wishes, more than anything, to turn back time, punch himself in the face, and make him shut up about Erik. It would've hurt less than when he hurt Erik.

Rab soothingly rubs Eleven's back as Eleven hiccups and shakes. When Eleven pulls away, Rab offers him a handkerchief. Eleven takes it and blows his nose into it, then wipes the tears off his face. Then, he realized that was the wrong order and internally cringed. That's going to be more ammo for his Shypox.

"Heartbreak… it's…" Rab purses his lips. "It's a nasty thing, I should know."

"…Why do we feel it, anyway?"

"I don't know." Rab answers honestly.

Eleven sniffles and moves his hair from his eyes. "Can I be alone for a while?"

"Of course, laddie." Rab stands up. "How about I get ya some ice cream while I'm at it? How's that sound?"

"…Fine."

Rab gets out a chimera wing and flings it into the air, then disappears in a flash. Eleven quietly crosses his legs and hunches over. Soon, footsteps approach.

"Whatever it is you're gonna do, Jade already did it." Eleven automatically says without any bite.

"What happened back there?" Sylvia asks, completely ignoring Eleven's request. "Erik's…"

"I… I was talking to Serena, and… Erik, he… heard me say he's not my boyfriend. And apparently, he thought that, that we were together." Eleven mutters, picking at his nails. "And that I led him on." Eleven whimpers as fresh tears start pricking his eyes.

Sylvia's eyes widen. She purses her lips and frowns as she considers the new information. "Well… that explains a lot."

"Jade hates me, doesn't she?"

"I wouldn't say that," Sylvia takes a seat next to Eleven. "She's just, well, mad. At you."

"She beat me up."

"People do stupid things when they're angry." Sylvia starts rubbing Eleven's back. "Things they might regret later."

"She didn't seem like she'd regret beating me up." Eleven mumbles.

"That was in the moment. Give her some time."

"She thinks I hurt Erik for fun."

Sylvia considers that for a moment. "Do you still want to be with him?"

"Of course I do!" Eleven suddenly turns to Sylvia and yells. "I love him!"

"Then you need to make things right with him." Sylvia tells Eleven as she looks him in the eye to the best of her ability. "You have to go back and explain yourself. Tell him you're sorry."

"But… how? He's convinced I-"

Sylvia presses a finger to Eleven's mouth. "You have to try. The worst that could happen is that nothing changes." She takes her finger away and allows Eleven to speak.

"What if I say the wrong thing?"

"Then you try again."

"What if Erik won't talk to me?"

"Then wait for him to be ready to talk."

"What if Erik hates me even more afterwards?"

Sylvia sighs. "Tell me, what is the worst possible outcome that could arise?"

"Erik will hate me even more and so will everyone else and no on ewill want anything to do with me and I'll be all alone for the rest of my life." Eleven rambles without batting an eye.

"And what is the best possible outcome that could come from this?"

Eleven blinks. "The best?"

"Yes."

"Uh," Eleven scratches his jaw. "Probably… Erik forgives me, and… we get married." Eleven finishes with a blush.

Eleven isn't even trying to talk to the person in front of him right now…

But his Shypox kicks in anyway! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

Sylvia patiently waits for Eleven to calm down. When he lifts his head back up, she speaks again. "So, with all of that in mind, what is most likely to happen?"

"Erik, uh…" Eleven ponders for a moment. "Will stop being upset."

Sylvia fingerguns and clicks her tongue at Eleven with a smirk. "Bingo." Then, she pats Eleven on the arm. "Erik will stop being upset, which means he will understand and forgive you, which means you will be able to confess your love for him without it being thrown in your face."

Eleven smiles rather sadly. "You still want me to do it, huh?"

"Of course I do! I want this story to have a happy ending, after all!" Sylvia clasps her hands together.

"…Ok. I'll try." Eleven starts to get up and dust himself off.

"That's the spirit!" Sylvia practically leaps to her feet.

"So, uh, you think Erik's stopped crying by now?" Eleven looks in the direcrion of camp.

"Only one way to find out."


	8. Of Circuses and Plans

"Goddess-!" Eleven ducks behind a tree and clamps a hand over his mouth.

Sylvia follows Eleven's lead and hides behind a different tree. "What is it?" She whispers.

"Sh!" Eleven points around the tree, and Sylvia follows his finger.

"Why would he do that, anyway?" Veronica wonders aloud. Her head is propped on one hand as she watches Jade pour something into a cup.

"I don't know." Jade hands Veronica the cup. "Maybe we didn't know him as well as we thought."

"Something doesn't add up, though. Erik is his best friend. Why would he hurt him?" Veronica takes a sip as she ponders.

Sylvia retracts back into her hiding place. She looks back at Eleven, waits for him to look at her, then she lifts up her hands and tells him that Jade still seems angry. Eleven pulls a face, makes a claw shape with all of his fingers, and waves his hand up and down in front of his face, with his palm towards his face. Then, he uses his index and middle fingers to mimic walking towards camp, and then he brings his hands together, makes a thumbs-up with both, and tilts one hand towards Sylvia while he keeps his brows furrowed.

Sylvia risks another peek, then she starts stroking her chin. She lifts her hand up, as if preparing to sign something, then she puts it back. She glances back at Eleven and shrugs. Eleven lets his head hang low, and sighs quietly. He raises his hands up and pauses to translate his thoughts.

Eleven tries to sign to the person near him…

But then stops dead in his tracks! What if he mistranslates something?! What if he accidentally signs something offensive?! He just can't take that risk! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

Sylvia curses under her breath. She waits ten seconds, then she peeks out. Jade and Veronica are looking right at their hiding spots with mirrored, annoyed expressions.

"We know you're there." Veronica groans in an exasperated tone.

Eleven and Sylvia both cringe at the same time. Eleven makes a deep, exaggerated frown that would be hilarious if it weren't for the situation. Sylvia makes a similar face, albeit with slightly less despair. Then, Sylvia signs for Eleven to say something. Eleven takes a deep breath, shakes out his hands, then steps out from behind the tree.

"Hi, guys." Eleven falters as he stands before them on wobbly knees.

Jade narrows her eyes and sits taut as a spring. Veronica is giving Eleven a less murderous glare, but Eleven still fears whatever emotion storms behind those eyes. After several seconds, dragged on to feel like an eternity, Eleven takes a tentative step forward. When neither girl reacts, Eleven takes another step. Still no response. Eleven draws in his courage and slowly approaches the girls.

"Hi." Veronica acknowledges Eleven. She takes another sip of her drink as she looks away.

"So, uh, whatcha drinking?" Eleven asks as Sylvia approaches.

"Juice." Veronica verbally shrugs.

"Oh, that- that's nice, what kind?"

"Grape."

"Good, good." Eleven mutters, wiping the sweat from his brow as Sylvia comes up behind him. "Grape juice… tastes nice."

"It does." Veronica drinks again.

"So, uh, where's, where's Erik?" Eleven finally dares to ask.

"Still in his tent."

"Great! I'll just-" Eleven moves to go to their tent, but Jade abruptly stands up. Eleven shrinks back and raises his hands.

"I still remember what you did. Erik told me allll about it." Jade cracks her knuckles and tightens her gloves.

"I didn't mean to lead him on, I swear! I didn't even-!"

"Don't give me that!" Jade spits furiously. "You broke his heart, and you say you 'didn't mean to'?! I can't believe you!"

Veronica silently reaches underneath the table and pulls out a bag of popcorn.

"Jade, please, I just wanna talk to him!"

"You led him on!"

The bushes rustle behind Eleven, and out pops Sylvia. She wraps an arm around Eleven and tugs him away. "Come on, dear. Arguing with her won't solve anything."

"Oh, come on! And just when it was starting to get good!" Veronica whines, throwing her popcorn onto the table.

"Sorry to disappoint you, dearie, but Eleven and I need to talk!" Sylvia shouts with her hand as an improvised megaphone while pushing Eleven into the treeline. Once they're safely out of earshot, she stops and turns to Eleven. "Listen, honey. You won't get anywhere by arguing with Jade. She's clearly too angry to listen to you right now."

"But she won't let me near Erik! She's- she'll beat me up again!"

"I know." Sylvia sighs. "Which is why we need a way around her." She sits on a large stump and gestures for Eleven to do the same. Eleven sits with her, with their knees touching.

"What do you have in mind?" Eleven asks, picking at his sleeve.

"Hmmm…" Sylvia taps her chin and frowns. She crosses her legs and shifts her weight around. "How about I get Jade away from camp, then you swoop in, clear up this little misunderstanding, and kiss Erik?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person with him…

But his face suddenly turns bright red, and he starts imagining himself kissing Erik! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Oh dear. That does not bode well."

"Just… gimme a minute!" Eleven shouts louder than intended. He takes several deep breaths, then he stops hiding his face. "Uh, what were you saying?"

"That I distract Jade while you talk to Erik." Sylvia reiterates plainly.

"How w-will you do that?"

"Don't worry about that, dearie." Sylvia smiles and winks. "You just focus on talking to your sweetie."

\-----

Sylvia bounce-walks over to Jade and Veronica with a smile on her face and her hands behind her back. She hops onto their improvised table with such ease that it looked as natural as breathing, and she crosses her legs at the ankle.

"Syl-" Veronica starts to speak, but Sylvia quickly shushes her.

"Welcome, one and all, toooooo… Sylvia's spectacular, sublime, sparkling show of skill!" Sylvia strikes a pose, raising her hands up high and showing off her three bowling pins.

"Huh. This should be interesting." Veronica rests her chin on her hand.

"You better break out your popcorn, honey, because this is sure to be a show for the ages!" Sylvia winks and kicks her leg up. "For our first performace, I shall juggle while hopping about on one foot!" And with that, Sylvia throws the bowling pins into the air.

"Do you have any popcorn left?" Jade asks Veronica.

Veronica picks up the popcorn and holds it between her and Jade. Jade takes a few pieces and pops them into her mouth. Sylvia hops on her toes as she catches and throws the pins over and over again. She looks down at the audience with a grin, only for it to falter slightly when she sees half of it looking behind Sylvia, rather than at her. Sylvia huffs through her nose and palms a nail-sized smoke bomb hidden in her sleeve. In a flash of smoke, three pins turn into five, another flash and they turn into eight. Sylvia accomodates each and every pin with the ease that comes from years of experience, and even adds a little twirl to her hops. 

Jade watches Sylvia's show for a few seconds, then goes back to staring past her. Veronica follows her gaze, and just like that, Sylvia's lost her entire audience. She mentally curses, then takes a small bottle, deftly uncorks it, throws it in the air and watches its content sprinkle over the pins, then uses Hot Lick to set them on fire. But even then, her audience's attention only flicks over to her for a few seconds.

"Juggling not to your liking, dearies?" Sylvia finally breaks the silence, catching all the pins. "Alright, let's switch it up!" Sylvia throws the pins high up, backflips off the table, pulls out a small unicycle from under her shirt in midair, lands on the ground sitting squarely on the unicycle, whips out some bamboo skewers, and catches the freshly-transformed plates on them.

Sylvia wastes no time in pedalling in a circle around the table, whistling a catchy tune as she does so. She jerks her arms up, letting her sticks and plates fly up in the air for a second before catching them in more comfortable spots on her arms. Then, she pedals just a bit faster, and a glance confirms she's recaptured Veronica's attention. However, Jade is a different story. She's still staring into the forest, show completely forgotten. Sylvia stops next to her and jumps onto the seat of her unicycle, exaggerating her shift in balance and wobbling a little bit, then she rights herself and stands on one foot.

"Can't believe Eleven's STILL trying to hurt Erik…" Jade mutters under her breath. Sylvia would have missed it, were it not for her sensitive hearing, and the fact that she was focusing hard on Jade.

"Don't mind him, hun. I'm sure he just wants to watch the show!" Sylvia gives Jade a big smile.

Jade frowns and shakes her head. "He's standing there, like, like…"

"Like a creep?" Veronica supplies.

Jade snaps her fingers and points to Veronica. "Like a creep!"

"He's not being creepy, I assure you!" The plates on Sylvia's left arm start to wobble, and Sylvia swings her arm out to compensate. "He just wants to watch me!"

"I better go deal with him, just to be safe." Jade grumbles as she gets out of her seat.

"No no no, that won't be necessary!" The plates are still wobbling slightly. "Let's just enjoy my performance! I'll even play a kazoo, if you want!"

Jade ignores him and trudges towards Eleven. "I swear, he thinks I'm dumb or something…"

"Hey, you know what else is dumb?!" Sylvia shouts before her brain can catch up with her mouth.

Jade stops. Sylvia recoils back as Jade slowly turns around and fixes her woth a glare. "What?"

Well, Sylvia dug this hole for herself, she might as well hop in and bury herself. "Serena!"

For a moment, all is still, save for Sylvia's balancing act. Then all of a sudden, fireballs and kicks are sent flying towards Sylvia. Sylvia drops just in time to avoid them, miraculously keeping her plates on the sticks, then Sylvia starts pedalling like the fate of the world depends on it.

"GET BACK HERE!!!!!!" Veronica screams as she runs after Sylvia and prepares another large fireball.

Sylvia lets out an embarrasingly high-pitched scream and pushes herself to pedal even faster. She turns and glances behind her, not looking for Jade, although she really should, but looks for Eleven. She finds him cautiously stepping out of the bushes, then she makes eye contact with him, and pedals away. Sylvia can only hope Eleven can say what he needs to say before Jade and Veronica give up on trying to kill her.


	9. Happy Endings

Eleven steps into the campsite as soon as Sylvia leads Jade and Veronica away, just like she instructed. Eleven glances towards Jade's shrinking form, then he forces himself to take a deep breath and go to his tent.

"Erik…?" Eleven chances, tapping on the flaps that serve as the door.

"What?" Comes Erik's muffled, sleepy voice.

"I wanted to talk. Can I come in?"

"No."

"Ok, uh, guess I'll stay out here." Eleven sits down next to the tent. "Can I at least open the flaps?"

"…Sure."

Eleven slowly opens the flaps and ties them open. Erik is laying down on his side of the tent, clutching Eleven's pillow. His eyes are tinged red, and his cheels are flushed. The remnants of tear tracks shine in the darkness of the tent, and it breaks Eleven's heart.

"I'm so sorry." Eleven starts off with. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Erik stays quiet.

Eleven inhales deep through his nose, then exhales through his mouth. "I didn't even know you felt that way towards me. If I did, I…"

Eleven tries to finish his sentence…

But the crippling Shypox stops his tongue! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Oh, sure. I see how it is." Erik mumbles, burying his face in Eleven's pillow.

"It's- it's not like that! I promise!" Eleven pleads, holding his hands up. "The Shypox just… randomly kicked in!"

Erik mutters something into the pillow.

"Can… can I start over? Please?"

"…Yes." Erik says after a moment.

"Ok, I, um, I didn't know you felt that way." Eleven stutters his way through. "And I'm very, very sorry. For accidentally hurting you! Not because you feel that way!" Eleven hastily shouts, already dreading the Shypox that will arise from this. "I'll never be sorry for your feelings! Wait, what about when you're sad? Oh Goddess, I'm screwing this all up!"

Erik sighs and lifts his face up. "Hey. I get what you're trying to say."

"…In a good way or a bad way?"

Erik sighs again. "Get in here."

Eleven blinks rapidly. "I-I thought-"

"Changed my mind. C'mon." Erik pats the space next to him. "Sit with me."

Eleven leans forward so that part of his body is inside the tent, then carefully watches Erik. When he doesn't react, Eleven crawls inside and sits a respectable distance away from Erik. "So, uh, does this mean you accepted my apology?"

"Yep." Erik groans.

"Great!" Eleven nervously grins. "I didn't want you to think I was leading you on, since I…"

Eleven tries to finish his sentence…

But out of nowhere, his face turns bright red! He must look like a tomato! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"Since you…?" Erik lifts up his head, eyebrow raised.

"Since I actually…"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But he suddenly forgets how to talk, and all that comes out of his mouth is a jumbled mess! How embarassing! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

Erik drops his head back down. "Y'know what, forget it." Erik dismissively waves a hand. "Can't be that important, anyway."

Eleven opens his mouth, then closes it. He rubs at his face, then swallows the lump in his throat. "It… nevermind. Need a hanky?"

"Nah. I stopped crying before the whole Sylvia fiasco." Erik turns to look at Eleven. "By the way, did you see what happened?"

"Yeah. She was trying to lure Jade away so I could talk to you without her killing me."

Erik laughs - laughs! - and shakes his head. "Oh, Jade."

"Yeah." Eleven checks outside the tent. No Jade around.

"Y'know, she's actually got the wrong idea about this." Erik offhandedly mentions.

"What do you mean?" Eleven settles back down next to Erik.

"I… I didn't think you were leading me on. It's just that…" Erik takes a deep breath and blinks rapidly. "I thought we were, y'know, together. Romantically. I dunno why, I just assumed, since you acted like you liked me."

"…We were together?"

"No, I… just thought we were." Erik clutches Eleven's pillow just a little tighter. "You remember when you were comforting me after the Gondolia incident? That's when I started thinking that you… that you…" Erik's hands shake as a tear leaks from his eye. "Man, I'm an idiot. I jumped to conclusions right away." Erik's voice cracks in the most heartbreaking way Eleven has ever heard.

"…Erik?"

Erik buries his face in the pillow.

"Erik…"

"Mmph?" Erik's face stays where it is.

Eleven gulps. "I-I have something I wanted to tell you."

"What?" Erik unburies his face just enough to look at Eleven.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But what if he messes up again?! What if he stutters?! …Nope, he just can't take that risk! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

Eleven peeks through his fingers to see Erik patiently waiting for him to say something. Eleven forces his hands by his sides and opens his mouth.

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But then he remembers the time he farted in front of Erik, and he convulses with embarassment! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"You ok?" Erik asks.

"I am! I just…" Eleven half-shouts as his entire body trembles. "I gotta get this out!" If he doesn't tell Erik now, he might lose his chance at a relationship with him forever! "I-! I-!"

Eleven feels the exact moment the Shypox hits. His hands automatically jerk to his face, but Eleven stops them at the last moment and forces them away. His entire body flushes and quivers as he uses all of his willpower to pry his jaw open.

"I! LOVE! YOU!" Eleven finally screams. Then, and only then, does he let himself hide his face and curl in on himself.

Erik suddenly sits up. His mouth hangs open as he rapidly blinks. "R-really?!"

"…Yes." Eleven squeaks from behind his hands and knees.

"E-Eleven, I…" Erik gasps. "Eleven?"

Eleven moves his hands an inch away from his face. "Yeah?"

"Iloveyoutoo!!!"

"…What?"

Erik blushes. "I love you too!" He says more slowly.

Eleven is completely still for a few seconds. Then, he pounces. He tackles Erik to the ground and hugs him while chanting 'I love you's over and over again. Erik laughs and hugs him right back. Then, he suddenly rolls them over so that Erik's on top, and Eleven starts laughing as well.

"I love you." Erik repeats with a big grin on his face.

"I love you too!" Eleven abruptly sits up and dives in to kiss Erik, but is only met with his hand. He pulls away with confusion.

Erik waggles his finger and winks. "Trying to kiss me before the first date?" Erik tsks. "What kind of man do you take me for?"

"But… I thought you wanted to kiss me?" Eleven furrows his brows.

"Believe me, I do, more than anything. But I have rules when it comes to this thing. And those rules tell me to not kiss you on the mouth until our date. Cheek kisses, though…" Erik kisses Eleven's cheek. "They're more than ok." He whispers in Eleven's ear.

Eleven gets a dumb grin on his face, and it stays there even as he passes out.

\-----

"…So, yeah, we're together now, I guess."

Eleven rubs at his eyes and groans. He rolls onto his side and sniffs the addictively-scented pillow.

"What do you mean you guess?"

"Well, we haven't gone on a date yet, so we're not officially together yet, but I'm gonna change that soon."

Eleven groggily opens his eyes. He props himself up and takes in what he was using as a pillow, a long red cloth. It takes him a minute to realize it's the sash Erik always wears. Eleven blushes a little, then he blushes hard as he remembers what caused him to lose consciousness.

"So Eleven WASN'T leading you on?!"

"Nope! Turns out, we're both gay idiots."

Eleven takes a moment to compose himself, then he exits the tent. Everyone is sitting around the campfire, clearly focused on Erik. However, once Eleven stands at full height, everyone looks at him. Erik grins and walks up to him.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty." Erik teases, hugging Eleven. "Took you long enough to wake up."

Eleven tries to talk to the person hugging him…

But he's struck dumb by how gorgeous they are, and his heart starts pounding fit to burst! There's no way he can talk to anyone now!

"Sleep well?" Erik asks.

"Y-yeah." Eleven nods.

"Good." Erik pulls away and grabs Eleven's hand, then leads him over to where he was sitting.

Eleven blushes even harder and stumbles over his own two feet before outright tripping and falling. Luckily for him, Erik was right there to catch him. He helps Eleven back to his feet, then pats his arm.

"Falling for me already, huh?" Erik smirks, leaving Eleven speechless.

Someone starts loudly squealing. "Oh my gosh, you two are adorable!"

Erik and Eleven both turn to the source of the squeals. Sylvia is lightly clutching her face, eyes wrenched shut and mouth in a big smile. Erik rolls his eyes and guides Eleven into sitting down with him.

"I see you're quite happy about this." Hendrik wraps an arm around Sylvia. "That makes me happy as well."

"Of course I'm happy! I helped Eleven confess his love for Erik!"

"Wait, you helped him?" Erik asks.

"Yes, dearie! I got him that nice outfit and makeup and roses for when he tried to confess the first time, and then I got Jade and Veronica away so he could truly confess!"

Erik's eyes go wide. "THAT was what the roses were for?!"

Eleven scratches the back of his head. "…Yeah." He hides his face in Erik's shoulder.

"I… wow, I didn't even think of that." Now it's Erik's turn to blush. "Man, I feel really stupid."

"Don't worry about it." Eleven squeezes Erik's hand.

Serena coughs pointedly. "Now that we've got that out of the way, there's a few people that need to make some apologies."

Jade speaks up first. "Eleven, I'm sorry I beat you up. Erik told me everything, and I know now I made a big mistake."

Eleven takes a breath. "I forgive you."

"Sylvia, I'm sorry I tried to beat you up." Jade continues.

Sylvia nods. "And I'm sorry I insulted Serena."

"I'm sorry too." Veronica pipes up.

"I completely understand your reactions. Believe me, if someone insulted my Hendrik, I would react the same way." Sylvia pats Hendrik.

"…Wait a minute, your Hendrik?" Eleven sits upright. "As in the boyfriend way?"

"Suitee, actually. I'm courting him." Sylvia explains. "I know, I know, it's old-fashioned, but-"

"You're dating Hendrik?!" Eleven exclaims.

"He's courting me." Hendrik frustratedly grits out.

"You were together this whole time?!"

"Yes." Sylvia nods. "To be honest, we were almost as obvious as Jade and Serena."

"WAIT, YOU MEAN SERENA'S DATING MY SISTER?!?!“

"Oh man…" Erik groans as he rubs his forehead. "Did you really not know?"

"NO!!!"

"Eleven, we kissed in front of you." Serena points out.

"I thought you two were just being pals!"

Rab sighs. "No wonder ye didnae see Erik's feelin's." He shakes his head.

"Is there anyone else that's dating someone?!" Eleven abruptly asks.

"Weeeelllll, there is this one woman in Gallopolis…" Rab brings up.

Veronica huffs. "Everyone's dating someone except for me!"

"Eleven and Erik aren't officially together." Serena tells Veronica.

"Yet!"

While Veronica loudly complains about her relationship status, Erik turns to Eleven with his signature smirk. "Hey, how 'bout we get outta here, go somewhere a bit more… private?"

"Like where?" Eleven asks him.

"Hm, how about we go down to the beach at the Costa Valor, then go to Hotto and get some of those noodles you really like?"

Eleven gasps. "Is this gonna be a date?"

"Yep!"

"But we only just told each other how we feel!"

"Well, there's no time like the present." Erik stands up. "So, you wanna go on that date or not? Or… there something you wanna change about it? I'm flexible when it comes to dates."

Eleven blushes hard. "…I wanna do it." He blushes even harder.

Erik grins. "Good." He turns to the others and shouts. "Hey, we're gonna go on that date now!"

"Have fun, you two!" Sylvia giggles, waving to them.

"Use protection!" Jade shouts to them.

"I don't have sex on the first date, but thanks!" Erik says back. "So, you ready to go?"

Eleven tries to talk to the person in front of him…

But the mere thought of sex makes him red in the face! And the thought of sex with Erik makes him blush from head to toe! There's no way he can talk to anyone in this state!

"…I'll take that as a compliment." Erik simply says.

"Gimme a second." Eleven does a few breathing exercises, then stands upright. "Sorry. I'm ready."

"Great!" Erik holds both of Eleven's hands. "Oh, and by the way, if a kiss on the cheek made you faint, you should see how great of a kisser I am."

Eleven nearly messes up the Zoom spell. "Erik! You can't just say something like that while I'm casting Zoom!"

"Sorry, I'll shut up for now."

Eleven takes a second to get his heartrate under control, then he concentrates on the campsite in Costa Valor. He and Erik disappear in a flash of light, leaving everyone else behind.

"Oh, dang it." Rab grumbles. "I still need to give Eleven the Talk…"

"Why do you need to give him the Talk?" Hendrik asks.

Rab dismissively waves at Hendrik. "Nevermind. Just remind me when they get back." He pats his pocket and feels the copy of the Ogler's Digest, male edition, stashed away inside.


	10. You Guys Are Gonna Love Me For This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and i said "eh, ill just write that ch about eleven and erik finally getting together and call that the last ch." yknow, like a liar

_A few years later…_

"Nervous, dearie?" Sylvando asks as he applies the foundation.

"Yeah." Erik replies, not even bothering with his normal arrogant demeanor.

"Don't worry, darling. The anticipation is always worse than the act." Sylvando gives Erik a reassuring smile.

"And yet my heart's still racing." Erik fiddles with his cuff as Sylvando takes him by the chin and tilts his head to the side.

"You'll be fine. Just do it as we practised, and soon enough, you'll be one of the happiest men in the world!"

"Sylv, what if…" Erik purses his lips. "What if he says no? Or if he runs off?"

"Oh please, he wouldn't go through all this trouble just to run away from it all. In fact, I bet he's excited to do this!" Sylvando reassures Erik as he picks up some blush and starts applying it to Erik's cheeks.

"Still…" Erik looks away from Sylvando to focus on a particularly interesting tile on the ground.

Sylvando sighs. "Erik, honey, just the other day he was literally jumping for joy talking about this. He wouldn't run off on you, no matter what."

Erik frowns as he considers Sylvando's words. "Did you… get nervous when you and Hendrik got married?"

"Of course I did. I don't think there's a single person in the world that wouldn't." Sylvando puts his brush down and gets a new one.

"How did you deal with that?"

"By performing those breathing exercises, imagining how happy me and Hendrik would become, and reminding myself that I've got this." Once Sylvando is done with the blush, he takes a tube of lipstick and opens it up. Erik keeps his mouth shut as Sylvando works. When Sylvando is done, he takes a wet cloth and wipes away any smudges around Erik's mouth.

"You done?" Erik asks.

"Yep! You're going to look oh-so delicious!" Sylvando smiles and clasps his hands. "Come, look!" Sylvando makes Erik stand up, then brings him over to the full-body mirror.

Erik is wearing black formal attire, with a puffy white shirt, brown shoes, and red cuffs. His hair has been brushed to be as unruly as possible, and when Erik runs his fingers through it, he's surprised to see how soft it is.

"You sure Eleven's gonna like me like this?" Erik doubts, fiddling with his collar.

"Of course! You look the most handsome I'ver ever seen you! Oh, Eleven's going to faint once he sees you!"

Erik nervously chuckles. "Hope not. Think that'd be bad luck."

"Don't worry, I have a feeling everything's going to go perfectly well! And if they don't, then a few years down the line, you'll have a funny story to tell your children." Sylvando steps away from the mirror and starts packing his makeup bag in his bag.

Erik blushes. Hard. "Syyyyylv! You- you can't just-!" Erik turns away and loudly groans. "Now how am I supposed to stay composed?!"

"By performing breathing exercises." Sylvando lets out a laugh as he shuts the bag.

Erik sighs and leans on the table. He dips his head down low and resists the urge to rub his face as he forces his breathing to slow. His heartbeat gradually slows, and the jittery feelings ebb out of him. When his heartrate is back to normal, Erik takes one last deep breath and stands upright.

"Better?" Sylvando asks.

"Yeah." Erik turns back to Sylvando. Apparently, while he was waiting for Erik to calm down, he started changing into his own formal attire. "Need any help?"

"No thank you dearie, I've got it." Sylvando says as he wraps a red neckerchief around his collar.

"Oh, ok." Erik looks in the mirror and quickly adjusts his own collar. "When's Eleven gonna be done?"

"Uh, he should be finishing up soon. Why?"

"Just curious." Erik sits back down.

Sylvando sits with him and squeezes his arm. "Remember: the anticipation is worse than the act."

Erik silently nods. Sylvando does some last-minute adjustments on Erik's clothes while they wait. Eventually, someone knocks on the frame holding the curtains up. Sylvando gets up and answers it.

"Is he ready?" Hendrik asks, straight to the point.

"Yes, my love. What about Eleven?"

"He is ready as well."

Sylvando smiles. "And the others?"

"I believe they are ready, as well."

"Good." Sylvando pecks Hendrik's lips. "I have to say, you look absolutely radiant!"

Hendrik smiles and looks down. "And you… look good. Very good."

Sylvando laughs. "Oh, I just love for your adorable compliments!"

Hendrik chuckles. "We are, uh, we are supposed to start soon."

"Oh, right!" Sylvando snaps his fingers. "I nearly forgot! Is everyone in their places?"

"Most of us are. Eleven is still in his dressing booth with his mother."

"I'll get Erik to his place. Tell Eleven Erik's ready."

Hendrik bows at the hip. "As you wish, dear." Hendrik turns around and heads to Eleven's dressing booth with a smile still tugging at his face.

Sylvando watches him leave, then he draws the curtain shut. "It's time."

Erik stands up on shaky legs. He wipes his hands on a nearby rag, then takes a deep breath. That wait felt like it dragged on for eternity, but at the same time, it felt too short for human perception. "Just like we practiced…" Erik mumbles under his breath.

Sylvando drags a circular curtain frame to the curtain serving as the door. Then, he gestures to the inside of the circular frame.

"What?"

"We can't risk Eleven seeing you just yet, sweetie."

Erik sighs and stands inside the frame. Sylvando shuts the frame, then starts walking with it. Erik stumbles a little before managing to just barely keep pace with Sylvando and his ridiculously long stride.

"Can't you walk a lil slower?" Erik grumbles.

Sylvando slows down a little. "Better?"

"Yeah."

Sylvando ushers Erik into the church through a side door and shuts the door behind them. Then, he opens the curtain and brushes some hair out of Erik's face. "Make sure you wipe your shoes."

"Right, right." Erik nods, face red. "Goddess, I'm- I'm actually doing this."

"I said the same thing before my wedding." Sylvando gives Erik a reassuring smile. "Remember what I told you, and you'll be fine."

"I know, just…" Erik nervously chuckles, resisting the urge to scratch his head. "Never thought I'd get to do this."

"Why's that, honey?"

"Well, with the Vikings, and me being a criminal, I couldn't even entertain the thought of…" Erik trails off, going red as a tomato. "Uh, y-you got a mint?"

"Of course." Sylvando pulls a tin out of his pocket and opens it for Erik.

Erik takes a mint and chews it up. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Sylvando winks as he puts the tin away. "Do you remember your routine?"

"Yeah." Erik nods.

"Good. I'll take my place, now. In the meantime, you keep on practising your breathing exercises. Good luck, dearie!" Sylvando turns and struts through the curtain.

Erik sighs. He smooths out his clothes, then picks up the bouquet of irises, alstroemerias, and forget-me-nots that was laid out for him. Then he waits, and breathes deep. The door behind him opens, and Erik smiles.

"Let me guess: Mia?"

"No, I'm your long lost grandpa." Mia smirks, holding the door open. "And I've brought the ghosts of our ancestors, too."

Veronica, Jade, and Leif, the kind priest who nursed Mia back to health, all walk in, followed by Mia herself.

"How kind of you." Erik smiles, turning around. He gives Mia a quick hug. "Got the rings?"

"Nope!" Mia sticks her tongue out.

Leif sighs. "I have them." He holds up two velvet boxes.

Erik blinks. Then, he scowls at Mia. "Miaaaa!"

"You shoulda seen the look on your face!" Mia cackles, bending over to slap her leg.

"Very funny." Erik crosses his arms.

Veronica laughs. "Aah, no harm done."

"Except for giving me a heart attack."

"Lighten up a lil, will you? You don't want to be wearing a frown for the big moment!"

Erik rolls his eyes. "Please tell me you have the rest of the stuff."

"Yes." Jade holds out a velvet pillow and a basket of flower petals.

"Okay, good." Erik lets out a sigh of relief. "Can we please just get ready now?"

Jade smiles and hands the pillow to Mia. Veronica takes the basket while Leif digs out the rings and places them on the pillow. Leif stands by Erik while Jade fixes her outfit.

"Y'know, when we first met, you absolutely destroyed me in the arena." Erik reminisces, looking at nothing in particular. "And now you're my best person."

"Funny how things turn out, wouldn't you say?" Jade says as she peeks through the curtain.

"Yep. It's weird. But in a good way." Erik nervously chuckles. "Just like how I met Eleven in prison…"

"Out of curiosity, was it love at first sight, or did it happen gradually?" Leif asks.

"W… I… ah…" Erik turns red from head to toe. "It was… gay."

"So love at first sight?"

"…Gay!" Erik blurts out, hiding his face behind his hands.

Mia laughs. "You're such a disaster! How did you ever tell him you liked him?!"

"Believe it or not, Eleven said it first!" Veronica says.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah! Erik can tell you allllll about it. After the ceremony." Veronica grins.

Erik glares at the girls before smoothing out his clothes and standing next to Leif. Mia gets behind Erik, holding the pillow wih the rings out in front of her, Veronica goes to the end of the line with her basket, and Jade peeks through the curtain. She holds a thumbs up in the air, then gets between Erik and Mia.

"Erik?" Leif pipes up.

"Yeah?" Erik looks at him curiously.

"I just want to let you know I'm honored to do this for you."

Erik skiles a little. "Thanks."

Right then, the church bells start ringing. Erik takes a deep breath, exhales all of the air in his lungs, then steps through the curtain with Leif in tow. Sunlight floods through the windows, basking the carpeted stone floors in yellow warmth. Wildflowers serve as the border for the carpet, guiding Erik's feet to the center, and his eyes to…

Oh sweet merciful Goddess.

It takes all of Erik's willpower not to collapse right then and there. Right across from him, walking down the aisle, is Eleven, being escorted by his mother. Eleven, in a white buttoned jacket, with a blue trim, pants in the same color scheme, and black shoes, with a purple ribbon in his hair, and a big smile on his face. And here Erik thought he couldn't get any more beautiful.

Erik stumbles over his own two feet and flails his arms about. Leif catches him, and Erik mutters a thanks before blushing all over and forcing his legs to cooperate as he walks to the center. He vaguely registers Hendrik and Cole following behind Eleven, and doesn't even process Sylvando's piano playing as his heart pounds hard enough to leave bruises.

When they reach the center of the aisle, where Serena awaits behind a podium with a holy book, Leif and Amber let go of Erik and Eleven at the same time, then they go sit down in the church pews, which have been decorated with colorful ribbons and soft cushions. Erik and Eleven traverse the rest of the distance on their own, meeting in front of Serena. Erik gives Eleven a shy smile as they take each other's hands. Jade, Hendrik, and Mia stand to the side of the podiums as Veronica and Cole dump out their remaining flowers onto the ground, before sitting down in the pews. Erik glances over to the audience, filled with the people of Cobblestone, along with several of the friends Eleven and Erik have made on their travels. Erik catches Rab's eye, and Rab gives him a thumbs up. Erik looks back to Eleven, and desperately attempts to control his breathing.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to share with Erik and Eleven an important moment in their lives. Through their time together, their bond and love have grown and blossomed, and now they have decided to live out the rest of their lives as one." Serena begins, projecting her voice. "When two soulmates meet one another, there is often an instantaneous spark. Something pulls them to one another, securing a future bond between them. In many cases, this can be as simple as asking someone out for ice cream, or sitting with them and chatting. In this particular case, that would be half the Heliodor military and a black dragon chasing them."

That earns a chuckle from the audience. Serena waits for the laughter to die down before continuing.

"At any rate, the bond between Eleven and Erik has only strengthened since then, bringing through the many twists and turns in their lives, and eventually culminating in their decision to marry. Marriage is a lifelong decision, not to be taken lightly. It is the ultimate form of friendship and love, bringing two people under the Goddess into a divine union. It is the ultimate expression of commitment, a vow to always love and care for your partner. But most importantly, it is the ultimate bond. It is unique, in that it is both mortal and holy. Soulmates are chosen by the Goddess, but marriage is chosen by the soulmates to strengthen their relationship with one another. When marriage is chosen, the Goddess smiles down on them and blesses their marriage. It is a special moment for both the soulmates and the Goddess. And thus, when the soulmates recite their vows, the Goddess shall look on and watch with rapt attention."

All is quiet for a few moments. Then, Erik's eyes grow wide. "Oh! That's, that's my cue!" Erik clears his throat. "Uh, I, Erik, will… I'm- I'm gonna…" Erik sighs. "Y'know, I, I had my vows memorized, but I gotta be honest: I've completely forgotten them."

The audience chuckles again.

Erik bashfully looks down. Eleven squeezes his hands in a comforting gesture. Erik looks up into Eleven's eyes and forces an arrogant smirk. Or at least, tries to. "Can't help it, my… my soon-to-be husband looks amazing."

Eleven giggles. "You look amazing, too."

Erik grins. "You trying to make me swoon?" Right after he says that, his blush grows to impossibly blushy levels. "I, uh, I'll just wing this, if that's okay. Uh, Eleven, I, I love you. A lot. And… I wanna be with you for the rest of my life. And I mean, until the day I die. So, uh, I wanna make you my… husband. Forever. Cuz I love you." Erik has no idea how he said husband without fainting. "And I… and I vow to make you happy, and to stay with you, and love you forever."

Eleven smiles and blushes hard. He bounces on the balls of his feet before squeezing Erik's hands again. "Erik… you're my best friend, and my soulmate. I vow to be with you for the rest of my days. I vow to be there for you, in sickness and in health, in sunshine and in rain, and in paradise and in hell. I give you my heart, and my hand, and in doing so, I tether our souls together. I vow to love you for as long as our souls remain, and long after they fade away."

Erik and Eleven squeeze each other's hands, smile, and blush hard. Mia trots up and presents the rings with a huge grin on her face. Erik lets go of Eleven's hands and grabs the silver ring with an emerald inlaid in it.

"I, Erik, give this to you, Eleven, as, as a symbol of… my undying love." Erik holds out the ring. Eleven gives Erik his hand, and Erik slips the ring onto Eleven's finger with a dumb grin.

Eleven takes a moment to admire the ring, then he takes the other ring, which is silver as well, but with an amethyst where the emerald was, and holds it out. "I, Eleven… I… give this to you as… as… as a symbol of my-my undying love!" Eleven giggles when he reaches the end of his sentence, practically jumping for joy. He holds out his hand, and Erik places his own in it. Then, Eleven slips the ring on Erik's finger with shaky hands.

Serena visibly shakes with excitement as she watches on. Then, she clears her throat and runs her hand through her hair. "Then by the power vested in me, I pronounce you two married under the Goddess. You may now kiss."

The newlyweds couldn't embrace each other fast enough. They're all over each other in an instant, nearly headbutting each other in their haste to share their first kiss as a married couple. Sweet, romantic, celebratory music plays as they kiss with pure love, passion, and just plain excitement. Everyone applauds with big smiles as Eleven and Erik seal their marriage, with Amber, Rab, and Leif being the loudest among the crowd. When Erik and Eleven part, they're both panting and blushing hard. They smile at each other, and then Eleven falls backwards.

"Eleven?!" Erik's hold prevents Eleven from falling to the ground, but Eleven still goes limp as everyone gasps, and the music stops playing. "Can you hear me?!"

"Yeah, yeah, just… gimme a minute…" Eleven holds up a finger.

Erik sighs in relief. "You gave me a heart attack!"

Eleven pants for a moment, then he brings his head up to look at Erik. He wraps his arms around Erik's shoulders, then pulls him down for their second kiss since they've said their vows. The crowd coos at the blushy lovebirds, and the music starts up again. This kiss is gentler, with promises of many tender days and soft romance ahead. The parting is slower, more hesitant, but just as happy and smiley as the previous kiss.

"My husband." Eleven gasps.

Erik couldn't be happier as he sets Eleven upright. "My husband."

Eleven's eyes grow wide, then he turns away, hiding his face in his hands as the Shypox theme plays. Erik chuckles at the sight. Eleven always looks so cute like this.

"Y'know," Erik says with a smirk once Eleven lowers his hands. "I'm kinda worried you'll faint again. Maybe I should carry you out the church to make sure you don't hit your head."

"Let me guess: you're gonna kidnap me again." Eleven has a small smile on his face as he gets close to Erik.

"Mmmmmmaybe."

Eleven laughs. "Just make sure I get to spend some time with the others, alright? And don't get handsy until we get to the bedroom."

"Uh, I think you mean our evil lair." 

Eleven laughs that cute little laugh that never fails to make Erik's heart. "Sorry, our evil lair." He wraps his arms around Erik's shoulders and braces.

Erik kisses Eleven on the cheek he puts one hand on Eleven's back. "And don't worry, I promise to let everyone see your face at least once today." Then, Erik ducks down and lifts Eleven up with practised ease.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah, yeah, i know, sylvs instrument probably isnt a clarinet, but i have no idea what else it could be. if any of you know, pls tell me what it is so i can solve this mystery once and for all


End file.
